


Classes and Kisses

by Raikana



Series: Moonlight Boys [4]
Category: No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: College, Eventual Sex, F/F, Mutual Pining, Romance, not for long
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-23
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-06-15 02:20:28
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 28,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15402816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raikana/pseuds/Raikana
Summary: Chinatsu Honda is finally at the university of her dreams, but one her first day in class she meets a cute girl. Will she be able to find out more about her?Kelsey Santiago has already had one fling since she came to college, and several more in high school. Will this girl be the one she settles down with?The answer to both is yes, by the way.





	1. Biology Class

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kikiki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kikiki/gifts).



> I know the series is Moonlight Boys, but not all the characters are guys. Just...most of them. The series was named after the Tumblr blog about the same OC universe. But I wanted to write about how these two met.

Chinastu hiked her backpack higher on her shoulders as she entered the sciences building on campus, pulling her schedule out of her pocket to check her room number. Three hundred twelve. She tucked the schedule back into her jacket pocket and turned to enter the stairwell. She started climbing, even as the door shut behind her, smiling as she walked with a bounce in her step. Years of study and one surrogacy later, she could finally go to her first-choice university, one with a highly rated sciences faculty and its own research facilities for graduate students.

She pushed open the door to the third floor and marched out into the hall, scanning the door plates for her classroom number. When she spotted it, she ducked in the door and took one of the seats in the middle of the classroom. Most of the other students sat behind her and almost nobody sat in the front rows.

She set her backpack on the floor next to her and bent down to pull out her textbook, notebook, and pencil case, arranging them neatly on her desk. She looked up from her desk when a nearby voice said “Excuse me.”

Chinatsu sat up straight and found herself face-to-face with a girl about her own age, her tan skin glowing under the fluorescent lights, her dark red-brown hair falling around her shoulders. Chinatsu blinked and had to swallow a couple times before her mouth started working again. “Hello,” she said, her voice barely carrying far enough for the other girl to hear. “Can I help you?”

The girl smiled at Chinatsu, revealing rows of white teeth as she took the seat next to Chinatsu. “Do you have an extra pencil? And paper? I was kind of in a rush this morning and forgot my things.”

Chinatsu stared at the girl for a few seconds before she registered the request and snapped out of her trance, feeling her cheeks warm as she turned back to her own desk. “Ah, yes, of course. Just a moment, please...”

Chinatsu busied herself with her pencil case, digging out one of her spare pencils and clicking the top to make sure the lead extended properly. She then set the pencil down and flipped to a point halfway through her notebook, tearing out a couple sheets of lined paper before flipping back to her original page.

Finally, when her heart had stopped racing, Chinatsu gathered up the pencil and papers, turning to offer them to the girl next to her. The girl took them with another warm smile, her green eyes twinkling under the lights. “Thanks for that. You really saved my ass.”

Chinatsu bit down on her tongue for a moment, to keep from blurting out her thoughts, though her eyes still darted down to sneak a peek at the girl’s ass, covered by snug jeans. She smiled back and ducked her head briefly, not quite bowing. “You’re very welcome. I’m glad I could help.”

The girl smiled at her for a few more seconds as Chinatsu watched her with a small smile of her own. She finally snapped out of it when the teacher walked in and started writing on the whiteboard at the front of the classroom. Chinatsu grabbed her pencil and started making notes as the teacher spoke.

“Welcome to BIO 101,” the teacher said, turning to face the class before he walked over to his desk to pick up a stack of papers. He walked to the closest student and handed the stack over. “This is the syllabus. Take one and pass the rest on. We’re going to spend the first part of class going over this with a fine-toothed comb. Then we’ll have a brief lecture to prepare you for your lab section, and then we can go.”

Chinatsu took one of the packets as the stack came her way and dutifully passed it to the green-eyed girl next to her. She smiled at the girl and almost jumped when their hands brushed against each other, the excitement setting her heart pounding again.

Chinatsu followed along with the teacher as he went through the syllabus point by point, taking notes in her notebook to help her remember the information for later. However, she kept getting distracted when she’d catch the flash of light off red-brown hair or a tan hand, reaching up to push the hair back behind an ear.

If the girl noticed Chinatsu staring, she didn’t say anything, which helped set Chinatsu’s mind at ease. She took to taking longer and longer looks beside her as the teacher spoke about the other services available on campus.

Chinatsu finally pulled her attention back to her notebook when the teacher started his lecture, bending over her notebook to write notes on the page, scrawling a mix of Japanese and English on the pale blue lines.

The teacher ended up lecturing for only about fifteen minutes before he let them all go. Chinatsu started packing her books into her bag, only to feel a warm palm land on her shoulder. She lifted her head and looked up into the girl’s sparkling green eyes. “Do you need anything else?”

The girl shook her head and offered out the borrowed pencil. “Nope, I’m good. Thank for the help, though.”

Chinatsu took the pencil and tucked it away into her case. She would almost swear she could feel the girl’s heat radiating out from the pencil, even though she knew that was impossible. Chinatsu quickly shoved the pencil case back into her bag and stood up, slinging the bag onto her shoulders before she pulled out her schedule to check her next class. As she headed for the door out, she caught one last glimpse of the girl walking away, her hips swinging slightly as she left with brisk strides. Chinatsu debated following her and asking her name, but she realized she wouldn’t have enough time and she hitched her bag up higher, taking off down the hall in the opposite direction.


	2. Biology Lab

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kelsey gets to her biology lab and manages to snag a seat next to the cute girl from class. They talk for a little bit before they have to get to work.

Kelsey glanced over at the clock on her desk and swore colorfully as she jumped out of her chair to grab her backpack, shoving books and papers haphazardly into it. Her roommate rolled over on the bunk bed and looked over the edge, her dirty blonde hair falling into her face. “Now what’s wrong?”

Kelsey grabbed a handful of pens from the cup on her desk and shoved them into her bag before yanking on the zipper. “I have bio lab in a few minutes! I’m gonna be late!”

Her roommate laughed and rolled back onto her bed, lacing her hands behind her head as she looked up at the stucco ceiling. “Maybe you wouldn’t have that problem if you spent less time thinking about the cute girl you met yesterday?”

Kelsey slung her bag onto her shoulder and stood on the edge of her bunk, scowling over the mattress at her roommate. “It’s not  _ funny _ , Tarja! I could be seriously late!”

Tarja rolled onto her side again, looking at Kelsey with a shit-eating grin. “So then why are you standing here arguing with me instead of busting your ass to get to class?”

Kelsey opened her mouth for a moment, then glanced over at her clock again. “Shit! I’m not done with you, yet!” She hopped off the bed and ran for the door to their room, only slowing down enough to get it open before she slammed into it before taking off down the hall.

* * * * *

Kelsey almost ran into the door to the lab, but she managed to come to a halt before she smacked her face against the glass window. She yanked the door open and entered the classroom at a brisk walk. She scanned the room for an empty seat and spotted one next to the cute girl from her bio class.

Her palms started sweating as she walked over to the girl and smiled at her, extending a hand. The girl tentatively took her hand and Kelsey shook it a few times before sitting on the stool next to her. “Hey, thanks for the help yesterday. But don’t worry, I have my stuff today.”

Kelsey took off her backpack and set it on the worktable, pulling out her notebook and a couple of her pens before putting her bag under the table. “Do you mind working with me today?”

The girl smiled demurely at Kelsey and shook her head a little, speaking in her heavily accented voice, making sure to enunciate. “No, of course not. It is a pleasure to meet you again.”

Kelsey opened her notebook and uncapped her pen, titling the first page with the class information. “My name’s Kelsey, by the way. Kelsey Santiago. The pleasure is all mine.”

The girl turned on her stool and bowed, resting her hands on her knees, her dark hair falling across her face. “It is nice to meet you, Miss Santiago. My name is Honda.”

Kelsey almost laughed, but stopped herself as she looked at Honda’s deep brown hair, fascinated by the way it fell over her shoulders like silk strands. “Honda? Really? Like, the car company Honda?”

Honda tilted her head up to look at Kelsey and her eyes almost took Kelsey’s breath away. They matched her hair, looking like black coffee under the harsh flourescent lights. Kelsey lost herself wondering how Honda would look in warmer lighting, like walking in the park at sunset. She snapped out of it when Honda started speaking to her again, in her melodic voice.

“Sort of, yes. I am not from  _ that _ Honda family, but the name Honda is very common where I am from.” Honda bowed her head again briefly. “I look forward to working with you, Miss Santiago.”

Kelsey finally did laugh, waving her hand a little, shaking her head. “You can call me Kelsey. It’s fine.” When Honda looked at her with a small smile, Kelsey felt her heart skip a beat before it started beating normally again. Kelsey picked up her pen as the teacher came into the lab and started covering the lab instructions in a cool voice.

It wasn’t until a few minutes into the lab that Kelsey realized the teacher had stopped talking and her notebook page was full of nothing but doodles, mostly hearts and spiraling flowers. She turned to Honda with an embarrassed smile as the written instructions made their way around the room. “Sorry, I kind of spaced out. Did you catch what the teacher said?”

Honda nodded and slid her notebook across the table. Kelsey glanced down at it and spotted kanji scattered across the page and down the margins, along with very neat and precise english words written across the center of the page. “I’m sorry it is not very much, but I still write slowly,” Honda said, ducking her head in another bow.”

“It’s fine, Honda. Really. It’s pretty impressive you can write that much.” Kelsey gripped her pen tight in one hand and copied Honda’s notes in her own messy scrawl. “I know I can’t write fast enough in Japanese to keep up with my classes most of the time.”

Honda took one of the lab packets for them and turned around on her stool to pass them on before turning back to Kelsey, opening the packet to the first page. “You speak Japanese?”

“Eh, kind of. I’m not great, but I just started my second year of classes. It’s really different from Spanish but it’s cool to learn.” Kelsey finished copying Honda’s notes and pushed the notebook back at her. The back of her neck prickled and Kelsey looked up to find the teacher staring intently at them. “But anyway, we should get to work. What’s this say?”

Kelsey scooted her stool closer to Honda so their thighs were only a few inches apart and leaned over the packet to study the instructions written there. However, she kept getting distracted by the smell of Honda’s perfume and the warmth she radiated through her flowery sundress. Before too long, it was all Kelsey could do to ward off the mental image of Honda in her sundress, strolling along a beach at sunset, her long hair blowing around her shoulders as she fought to keep a straw hat on her head.

Anytime Kelsey’s imagination strayed too far, Honda would clear her throat, pulling Kelsey back into their assignment. Kelsey knew she’d be revisiting those same fantasies later, though, when she was less distracted. Maybe when her roommate was out of the room and she could have a little bit of privacy with her vibrator.


	3. Speaking Partner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kelsey is excited to meet her new speaking partner for Japanese.

Kelsey sat through her Japanese classes in the second week of school, her brain swimming with the information she was learning already. Hiragana and katakana had proved hard enough to learn during her first year, she had no idea how she would fare with all the new kanji she had to learn before the end of the semester. But her teacher had passed around the forms for speaking partners during the first week of classes and Kelsey had signed her name to the top of the list. Her teacher had told them at the beginning of the class that they would be getting the name of their speaking partner after class.

Kelsey packed up her books as soon as the teacher said class was over, shoving them haphazardly into her backpack. She grimaced when she felt a moment of resistance, but she pushed harder on the pile and finally something in her bag gave way. She just hoped she hadn't ripped or bent anything important in her haste. She zipped the bag shut and jumped up out of her chair to approach the teacher's desk. "You said you had our speaking partners, Kawashita-sensei?"

Kawashita dipped her head in Kelsey's direction and bent to pull a sheet of paper out of her bag. "Yes, I did. Here is the list, Carmen-san. You've been paired with Chinatsu-san." She tapped her fingernail against the first row on the paper a few times before dragging the nail over to the contact information. "Here is her email address and phone number so you can contact her however you'd like. Arranging your meetings will be entirely up to you two. If you do not get along, you can speak to me about finding another partner."

Kelsey pulled out her smartphone and snapped a picture of Chinatsu's contact information before dropping the phone back in her pocket and giving her teacher a deep bow. "Thank you for your hard work, Kawashita-sensei...!"

"You can leave if you'd like Carmen-san." Kawashita gave Kelsey a small smile and made a gentle shooing motion toward the door. Kelsey grinned and hiked her bag up on her shoulder and turned towards the door. She still waved behind herself to her teacher and jogged out into the hall, the first one out of the classroom as everyone else started lining up to find their partners.

Kelsey jogged all the way to the cafeteria by her dorms and grabbed her tray of food before finally sitting down at one of the tables to pull up her phone. She typed Chinatsu's contact information in and sent her a quick text.

_Hey, my name is Kelsey and Kawashita-sensei says that you're my speaking partner for this semester? This year? I don't know how long this is supposed to go. Anyway, I'd love to meet with you whenever you're free! I've just started learning your language last year, but I really want to get good  at it, so please contact me! Looking forward to seeing you, Chinatsu-san! Bye!_

Kelsey winced as she read back her own message but hit send anyway and set the phone down next to her tray to start eating. She had only managed a few bites before her phone buzzed against the table, shifting sideways with the vibration. She picked it up and opened it up to look at her messages. Chinatsu had replied to her message almost immediately, so at least she was probably just as excited to have a speaking partner.

_I would like to meet you as well, Kelsey-san. I have class starting in twenty minutes, but I would be happy to meet you after class. Perhaps we might get some supper in the student center? I hope fast food is alright with you._

Kelsey laughed to herself and quickly typed out a reply.

_Yeah, for sure! Dinner in the student center sounds great! When does your class end? Or do you just want to meet there at, say, three o'clock?_

_I think that four o'clock would be safer. My teacher runs long in this class without meaning to. I will be outside the pizza store, wearing a dress with pink flowers on it._

Kelsey grinned, thanking God for introducing her to _two_ cute girls this semester. She had been lonely after she parted ways with her last girlfriend, but things were starting to look up finally. She thought she had some chemistry with Honda, no pun intended. Though they _actually_ shared a biology class, so the pun didn't really work anyways. She shrugged to herself and went back to her food.  Now she would be meeting Chinatsu, who had already said what she'd be wearing in four hours' time. Kelsey couldn't help sitting in the cafeteria, daydreaming about what her speaking partner might look like.

When Kelsey finally finished her lunch, she grabbed her bag, dumped her tray of dirty dishes into the conveyor belt into the kitchen, and walked back to her dorm room. She had the rest of the day free to do homework, because most of her classes fell on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. But her Japanese classes ran four days a week to give students a chance to learn the material in a reasonable amount of time. At least the extra credit hours meant she didn't have to take as many other classes. Japanese alone carried the credit load of almost two normal classes.

Kelsey walked into her dorm and dropped her backpack on the bottom bunk before throwing herself down after it. Her roommate was still in class. She sat up on one elbow and looked down at the backpack at her feet, then kicked it off the bed before unbuttoning her shorts and shimmying them down her hips. She pulled the light covers over herself and groped under her pillow for the small vibrator hiding there. She grinned and flicked it on, the buzz filling the room even as thoughts of Honda and the mysterious Chinatsu filled her mind.

*   *   *

Kelsey glanced over at her clock for what felt like the thousandth time since she rolled out of bed to get started on her homework. Luckily for her concentration, her roommate still hadn't come back. Maybe she had found a new part time job to help her pay for school. Or maybe she'd just found a new beau to date. Even though Kelsey had been sad when they broke up over the summer, she was able to recover and still be friends with her ex, at least good enough friends to room with her for a year. Or maybe just a semester.

Kelsey was hoping that she'd find someone else to room with soon, someone who wouldn't mind dismantling the bunk bed and pushing the two beds together, perhaps someone named Honda or Chinatsu. The beds had a small gap between the mattresses where the frames bumped up against each other, but the gap wasn't anything a pool noodle wouldn't fix. She still had the segments of a pool noodle packed away with her things from when she and her roommate had made an improvised king bed last year.

She finally shut her laptop and packed it away in her bag with her freshly sorted papers when the clock on her desk ticked over to show it was ten to four. She quickly grabbed her Japanese textbook and stuffed it in the bag as well, careful not to bend anything this time. She checked her clothes for any stains before smoothing out the wrinkles and swung her bag over one shoulder before heading out with a smile on her face.

She strolled briskly across campus, the trip from her dorm to the campus taking up about five minutes of her buffer time. Then she walked between the buildings to the student center and took the elevator down into the basement where the food court sat. It was technically the basement anyway, though the food court had large glass windows looking out onto the meeting area outside. Students milled around the small garden area, enjoying the warm afternoon. The heat of summer hadn't entirely faded this early in the semester so the students were spending time outside while they still could, before the air cooled and snow started falling.

Kelsey hiked her bag higher on her shoulders and turned to head for the small pizza chain in the basement, keeping her eyes peeled for a dress with a pink floral pattern. She almost missed the dress because the pattern was so abstract, but she finally spotted a flash of minty green gingham dotted with cartoonish pink flowers and walked up behind Chinatsu, clearing her throat to get the girl's attention. She closed her eyes to concentrate on what she wanted to say. She could write the words down for tests and homework, but she still tripped over her own tongue when she tried to speak Japanese. She had finally signed up for the speaking partner program in her second year so that she could finally get comfortable speaking the language.

"Hello, Chinatsu-san," she said after clearing her throat again. She took a deep breath and slowly opened her eyes with a smile. "My name is Kelsey--"

Kelsey's voice immediately cut off with a squeak when she saw Honda looking back at her with a warm smile.

"Hello again, Kelsey-san." Chinatsu turned her whole body to give Kelsey a small bow, replying in English. "It's nice to meet you again. This is certainly a coincidence, yes?"

Kelsey laughed nervously, hoping that she wasn't blushing too badly. "Yeah, this is a pretty big coincidence. Some people might even say it's fate." She wiped her palms against her shorts and let out another giggle, switching back to Japanese. "Maybe you're my fated person?"

Chinatsu just smiled back at her for a moment before crouching to pick up her bag, slinging it over one shoulder. "Are you hungry?" she asked in Japanese, speaking slowly and clearly, much like Kelsey had just spoken. Kelsey might have been offended if someone spoke to her like that in English or Spanish, or maybe even in Japanese if they had seemed cruel about it. But coming from someone like Chinatsu, it simply seemed like she was taking her time so that Kelsey had a chance to figure out what she had said.

"Yes,  I'm very hungry," Kelsey replied, rubbing her hand in circles on her stomach. "Where do you want to eat?"

Chinatsu spun in place to look around at the different fast food chains in the center, before pointing to one of them. "I like soup very much. Even though it is hot."

Kelsey nodded and offered Chinatsu her hand without thinking. Chinatsu barely even glanced down to Kelsey's hand before smiling and turning to walk to the restaurant alone. Kelsey was sure she must be blushing up to the roots of her hair as she followed Chinatsu, turning to look up at the sandwiches on the menu board so she wouldn't stare at Chinatsu's silky dark hair, the black picking up hints of a dark coffee brown in the sunlight. Even catching the shifting highlights out of the corner of her eye was distracting enough.

Chinatsu finally stepped up to the counter after a few minutes waiting in line and leaned against the counter as she ordered a bowl of beef and barley soup with a small loaf of bread. Kelsey bit her lip to keep herself from offering to pay. They were only meeting as speaking partners, not as a date. Though she hoped that Chinatsu would be willing to go on a date one day, that she hadn't been reading Chinatsu's signals all wrong. Maybe her warm smiles were just her way of being friendly and Kelsey had been reading too much into them.

Kelsey finally stepped up to the register, pulling out her student card as she ordered a ham and cheese sandwich with a cup of french onion soup on the side. The cashier swiped her card through the machine and Kelsey took her receipt to wait at the counter with the rest of the people, waiting for her order to come up.

Chinatsu's food came out and she picked up her tray, turning to face Kelsey, speaking in English once more. "I will go find a table, alright? Please come and find me when you are done."

Kelsey nodded and gave Chinatsu a thumbs up, not trusting her voice to work properly. She watched the other girl walk away, her sundress brushing against the backs of her knees as she walked. She stared so long that she almost missed her order number being called. She snapped her head back toward the pick up counter with a sheepish grin and stepped forward to claim her tray. She quickly thanked the worker before turning to follow Chinatsu into the main dining area.

She soon caught up with Chinatsu and slipped into the chair across from her at the small table, shrugging off her backpack to set it between her legs. "I was really surprised to see you again. I mean, I know I'm taking Japanese, but what are the odds I'd get _you_ for a speaking partner after those times we met last week? The odds are phenomenal!"

"The odds are certainly not good, but it will give us more things to talk about if we share a class." Chinatsu cupped her hand over her mouth as she took a bite of her bread, chewing it before speaking from behind her hand, this time in Japanese. "What do you study?"

Kelsey prodded at the hunk of melted cheese on top of her soup, trying to break it up into manageable chunks as she thought. "I study...roads," she said with a frown of concentration. "Roads and buildings and weights and...and math?" She sighed in frustration and finally stabbed the plastic spoon through the mozzarella cheese, switching back to English. "I'm studying engineering. How to make structures that're safe."

Chinatsu nodded and smiled as she pulled her hand away from her mouth. "I will look up that word in my dictionary so you can know the right word, Kelsey-san. I will make sure I bring it to our next meeting." She pulled her soup closer and leaned down to blow across the top of the soup, sending the steam wafting toward Kelsey. "I am studying science and bodies and chemistry. I want to work in a laboratory making medicines for people. I do not want to be a doctor, but I want to help the doctor do his job."

"Woah, really? No wonder you're in bio with me! You actually _want_ to be there!" Kelsey widened her eyes in amazement, looking at the short girl across from her in one of the most purely feminine dresses she'd ever seen.

"You do not want to learn biology? Why are you in the class, then?" Chinatsu tilted her head to one side, giving Kelsey a confused smile.

Kelsey just shrugged and scooped up a wad of cheese on her spoon, slurping it into her mouth. She did her best to chew it, but it still tickled her throat as the trailing strings went down. "I need some science credits before I can graduate and I did okay with bio in high school. I guess I'm just looking for an easy pass. Chemistry was way harder for me."

"Maybe if we take chemistry together, you might have an easy time learning the material?" Chinatsu gave Kelsey another one of her dazzling smiles.

Kelsey laughed a little and pressed down on her sandwich to flatten it. "Maybe. Who knows? Maybe it will backfire." She switched to Japanese once more as she picked up her sandwich, looking down at Chinatsu's slender fingers. "You're too cute, Chinatsu-san... You're going to kill me."

Kelsey glanced up at Chinatsu when the other girl stayed silent for a bit too long. She smiled to herself when she saw the blush spread across Chinatsu's cheeks. "I'm sorry," she muttered in Japanese. "I'll stay quiet."

Chinatsu simply cleared her throat and took a sip of her soup before changing the topic.


	4. Halloween Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kelsey invites Chinatsu to a Halloween party and takes her costume shopping.

Chinatsu looked up from her books when her phone buzzed against the wooden desk from its place behind her book, tucked under the small shelf at the rear of the desk. She placed her pencil in the center of the book and picked up the phone as it finally played a short jingle from one of her favorite shows. She opened the screen and found a message from Kelsey. She smiled and opened up the phone, her homework forgotten for the moment. She tapped on the message bubble and the message filled her screen, partly in Japanese, but with English words substituted where Kelsey obviously hadn't learned a particular word or phrase. So far, Chinatsu was learning more English from their partnership than Kelsey seemed to be learning Japanese, but she supposed that was to be expected when everyone else around them spoke English. It was simply rude to converse in a language that nobody else understood, she supposed.

_Chinatsu-chan, how are you! It's getting pretty late in fall and I know midterms are coming up soon, but on Halloween, there's supposed to be a party at one of the frat houses! It should be really fun. Do you want to come with me? It will be genuine American culture! And you get to wear a costume! We can go buy costumes together for the party!_

Chinatsu laughed to herself and starting tapping at the keyboard on her phone, typing in English, with the occasional word of Japanese sprinkled in, still using the English alphabet.

_A party sounds like a nice way to relax after midterms. I'd love to go to the party with you. How soon do we need the costumes? I just want to make sure I study enough for my test._

She set the phone down on the desk again and returned to her book, but no sooner had she picked up her pencil than the phone buzzed again.

_No, yeah, for sure! I don't want to fail my tests either, but it's usually best if you get your costume early so the stores don't run out of all the good ones! Do you want to come to my dorm for our next meeting and I can take you costume shopping? It'll be fun!_

Chinatsu quickly tapped out of the messaging app to check her calendar. She didn't have anything planned after their usual meeting time, so she went back to the messages app and tapped out her reply.

_That sounds like a good plan, Kelsey-chan! Let me know your room number and I will be sure to come to your room next time._

_Oh yeah! Will do! See you later, Chinatsu-chan~!_

Chinatsu smiled at her phone, her chest feeling warm as she thought about Kelsey's infectious smile, almost the same way she felt when she thought about Daichi back in Japan with his parents. He wasn't technically her son, but he had her DNA and she had carried him for nine months, living with his fathers the whole time so that they could monitor her well being.

She finally turned off her phone screen, Kelsey's words disappearing as she went back to studying.

*   *   *

Chinatsu walked up to Kelsey's dorm building just before their next scheduled meeting, only to find Kelsey standing just inside the door in a pair of long tight jeans and a long sleeved shirt with a graffiti like design on the front. Kelsey spotted Chinatsu through the glass and pulled on the door to join Chinatsu outside. She gave another one of her carefree grins. "Hey, nice to see you again. Your dress is _hella_ cute, by the way. Sometimes I wish I could pull that stuff off.”

Chinatsu looked down at herself, just wearing a simple knee-length dress with a pair of leggings under it and a small jacket over the top because of the cooler air. "...thank you for the compliment, Kelsey-chan. You like nice as well."

"Nah, you're just saying that..." Kelsey turned, heading for the edge of the building as she gestured at Chinatsu to follow. "C'mon, my car's over here. I figured I'd drive us out there because the bus doesn't really run that way. And this isn't really good walking weather. Too chilly." 

Chinatsu turned and jogged after Kelsey, slowing to a walk as she caught up. "I did not know you owned a car, Kelsey-chan. Do you drive often?" She clutched the strap of her purse where it rested against her shoulder, to keep the bag from sliding down to her elbow.

Kelsey shrugged as she walked, one of his shoulders going up and down. "I don't drive a _lot_ because the buses around here a pretty good, but yeah, I got a junker of a car before I moved away for school." She laughed a little, slowing down so that Chinatsu was walking beside her instead of a step behind. "Besides, I'm worried if I drive it around too much, it'll just break down and then I'll be SOL."

Chinatsu frowned as she walked beside Kelsey, their shoulders bumping every so often as they swayed from side to side. "I'm sorry, but I don't know that word. What is...SOL?"

Kelsey laughed, sliding her hand into her pocket as the entered the parking lot. One of the cars beeped and the lights flashed. "SOL isn't a word, Chinatsu-chan. It's an...uh...an acronym, I think. It stands for other words. It means Shit Outta Luck." Kelsey looked over the top of the car at Chinatsu's confused expression. "It's like an idiom. Y'know, like you're up shit creek without a paddle?" She glanced at Chinatsu again. "Just get in the car. I'll try to explain on the way."

Chinatsu nodded and lowered herself into the passenger seat of the car, buckling herself in. She set her purse between her feet as Kelsey dropped into the driver's seat. setting the car rocking for a few seconds. She shoved the keys into the ignition and started the engine before shutting her door and buckling herself in.  "Shit outta luck just means, like, something has gone super wrong. Things are really, _really_ bad. That's the same thing as being up shit creek without a paddle. Because then you can't row yourself out of it, yeah?"

Chinatsu simply nodded as she looked sideways to watch Kelsey punctuate her words with hand gestures, smiling at the other girl's passion. "I think I understand, now, Kelsey-chan. Thank you for explaining that. I will try to remember next time."

"No problem, Chinatsu-chan." Kelsey finally turned in her seat to look behind them as she pulled out of her parking space.

The car vibrated underneath Chinatsu as they drove through the campus and finally pulled out onto the main city roads. She relaxed back into the seat to watch the cars and the buildings as they drove past. "How far away is the store you're looking for?" she finally asked as the buildings around them grew shorter and further apart.

"Oh, not too much farther. But these Halloween pop-up stores only show up in the suburbs. So we gotta drive out to where the buses don't really run." Kelsey pulled to a stop at the red light, tapping her fingers against the wheel as she waited for it to turn green. "That's part of why I wanted to drive. Even with traffic, it's still shorter to drive out to the suburbs than to try to catch the bus out. They only run out there every hour or sometimes less."

Chinatsu nodded. "I understand that. Back home, the trains and buses run almost everywhere, but if you want to get to a country town, it is still easier to drive than it is to find an overnight bus driving out there, but sometimes you don't have a choice."

Kelsey nodded and laughed softly, still not taking her eyes off the road. "Yeah, kind of like that I guess. I can't wait until I can sign up for study abroad so I can get over to Japan for a few months."

Chinatsu glanced over at Kelsey and then looked down at her lap as she tugged her skirt down over his knees. "Ah...perhaps over the summer, you can come to Japan with me and I can show you my city? If you can pay for an airplane ticket, that is... I'm sure that my mother wouldn't mind hosting one of my friends for a little while. And if she won't, I'm sure we'll find some other place for you to stay..."

"What, really? Awesome! I'll, like, get a job so I can afford a ticket! I can't wait to get over there!" The car swerved off the road a few feet as Kelsey spun to look at Chinatsu.

Chinatsu grabbed her shoulder strap tight with both hands, opening her eyes wide. "Kelsey! The road!"

Kelsey spun back to look at the road, bringing the car back into its lane with a sheepish grin. "Sorry. I just got excited. I _really_ want to get to Japan and it'd just be a bonus to go stay with a cute gi—uh...friend. To go stay with my cute friend."

Chinatsu laughed quietly, putting her hand up to her mouth out of habit. "Thank you for the compliment, Kelsey-chan. You are _also_ cute. But please watch where you are driving. We still have at least one more semester before we have to worry about Japan."

"I'll be looking forward to it. Even if I can only afford to stay for a week or two. I'll have to talk about things with my family, too. They can't really help out much with money, but maybe I could get my brother to come pick up my car so I don't have to pay to store it for the summer." Kelsey slowed to a stop in the middle of a stretch of road and flicked her turn signal on.

Chinatsu sat up straighter and looked at the low buildings on both sides of the street, looking for the Halloween shop. From what she had seen of the holiday in the last week, she expected the store to be painted black with all sorts of fog and bats and skeletons decorating the front of the shop. Instead she finally spotted it, a large standalone store near a strip mall, the exterior still the same tan and brown as the rest of the strip mall. Instead of a large glowing plastic sign like the other stores, it had a simple banner strung up over the doors, where a sign used to be. There were still dark holes scattered around the banner where the lit sign used to be.

Kelsey turned into the parking lot and parked the car near the front. Now that they were closer to the store, Chinatsu could finally see some of the bat and witch decorations hanging in the windows, but they were small and hard to see from the street. And there were no decorations standing in front of the store like she had expected to see.

She opened the door and climbed out, closing it gently behind her before she walked to the back of the car to meet up with Kelsey. She held her purse in front of her so that it bumped against her thighs with every step. "Why doesn't the building have decorations outside? The Halloween pictures I found on the internet had...many decorations. Pumpkins, skeletons, bats, spider webs..."

Kelsey chuckled and nudged her elbow against Chinatsu's arm. "You probably found houses. Some people go really crazy with the Halloween decorations. But that's _nothing_ on Christmas decorations."

Chinatsu walked with Kelsey, side by side again, until they reached the door. Kelsey stepped forward quickly to open the door, holding it open for Chinatsu before following her inside. Chinatsu turned once she was out of the way to look at Kelsey. "What is wrong with Christmas?"

"What? Oh, nothing. It's not something _wrong_. It's just that people start putting up Christmas decorations almost as soon as Halloween is over. It actually pisses some people off. Like, makes them mad. Nothing to do with peeing." Kelsey laughed and reached over to pat Chinatsu's shoulder. She must have seen the confusion growing there as Chinatsu was formulating a question in her mind.

Instead, Chinatsu just nodded once. "I can see how it might annoy single people to have almost two months dedicated to a romantic holiday like that..."

This time, Kelsey's face creased in confusion. "...romantic? Christmas isn't really that romantic... It's like...it's a time you go to spend with your family and eat lots of food and open presents that you bought for each other." Kelsey turned down one of the aisles, slowing her pace to barely more than a crawl as she reached out to touch the crinkly plastic bags holding the costumes. She looked over the whole section she was in and shook her head, proceeding further down the aisle to another set of bags.

Chinatsu paused to look at some of the costumes they passed, the models on the cardboard wearing modest outfits, long dresses and pants with cheap wigs and plastic accessories. Chinatsu paused to look at one of the princess costumes. The skirt was a bit lackluster, hanging straight to the floor instead of puffing up like the dresses in the movies, but otherwise the costume seemed fine. She held the bag as she hurried forward to catch up with Kelsey at the end of the aisle. "What was wrong with a costume like this, Kelsey-chan?"

Kelsey shook her head and set one of the bags back on its hook before smiling at Chinatsu. "Nothing is _wrong_ with it, but c'mon...this is a party at a _frat house_. We can find something more fun than Princess Spinster there..." She looked over the rows and rows of costumes, finally standing on her tiptoes to grab one off a high hook. "See, something like this! I'd make a _killer_ sexy pirate, right? I got the skin tone for it. _And_ the curly hair!"

Chinatsu lowered the princess costume and turned to look at the costumes in front of them. Most of the costumes seemed to be more skin than costume. She spotted a sexy cat in tight shorts and a crop top, a pair of cat ears perched on top of her head. The more she looked at the costumes on display in front of her, the more she noticed that the sexy costumes were all just tight dresses with a picture printed on them, or perhaps they had a midriff baring top and a pair of tight shorts or a miniskirt.

"These costumes are very...minimal," she finally said, running her fingertips over the crinkly plastic bags. "Are you sure it is okay to...display yourself like this?"

Kelsey just nodded, reading the back of the pirate bag. "Of course it's okay! It's practically _expected_ when you're in college! Those costumes back there are like...mom costumes. Something you wear when you're going to take your kids trick or treating." Kelsey frowned as she continued reading the back of the costume bag. "Fucking cheapskates! This shit costs forty bucks and I still gotta buy my own hat?" She sighed in obvious frustration, but tucked the bag against her side before perusing the rows of costumes again.

"But it's already getting cold outside. These costumes won't be warm enough, right?" Chinatsu poked at one particularly skimpy costume, which seemed to be little more than a bikini with translucent pants attached to the legs.

Kelsey waved her off with a snort. "They don't need to be _warm_ , Chinatsu-chan. We're gonna be inside a frat house with _dozens_ of other people. Trust me, we're gonna be plenty warm. I guess you can get the mom costume if you want, but _I_ wanna dress up sexy. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll get some cute girl hitting on me." She waggled her eyebrow in Chinatsu's direction and Chinatsu burst out in a surprised laugh, covering her mouth, even as Kelsey's playful look turned embarrassed, a blush creeping up her neck.

Chinatsu had wondered about her new friend since they met in class, but she knew that Americans were more friendly overall and she hadn't wanted to endanger their friendly relationship by assuming that Kelsey had been flirting. But their last few encounters had made it increasingly clear to her that Kelsey harbored a crush on her, much like the one Chinatsu had on Kelsey. Now she simply had to find a good way to tell Kelsey that her feelings were reciprocated.

Chinatsu looked down at the modest princess gown in her hands and turned back down the aisle to hang it on its peg. "Well, if the point of the party is to have fun, I suppose I could try to dress in a more....playful costume." She walked back to the sexy costumes, browsing the rows for something familiar. She finally spotted a sexed up sailor style school uniform, straight out of an old anime. The bag was even labeled "Japanese School Girl." She lifted it off the peg with a laugh. "I don't know why this image is still so popular. I never wore anything like this in school..."

Kelsey looked at the skimpy uniform, grinning despite her red cheeks. "You mean you didn't have to wear a uniform?"

Chinatsu rolled her eyes and nudged Kelsey with her elbow. "Of course I wore a uniform, but it didn't look like _this_. I can show you when we visit, but the skirt goes down to my knees and I just wore a normal blouse and a blazer on top."

Kelsey chuckled and turned to walk around the end of the aisle, Chinatsu trailing behind her so as not to lose track of her in the big store. "I know the uniforms don't really look like that, Chinatsu-chan. I'm just joking with you. That's the kind of uniform they wore like...what? Thirty years ago or something? And in porn. It still shows up in porn."

Chinatsu nodded along as she walked. "Sometimes girls try to pull their skirts that high, but those are the....ah...the delinquent girls. The girls who sometimes skip classes. The ones who date the Yankee boys."

"Yeah, no, I get it Chinatsu-chan." Kelsey laughed as she stopped by the wigs, reaching up to grab a floppy pirate hat off a hook, plopping it down onto her head. "How's this look? The feather is kinda sad, but the hat looks big enough, right? For a pirate?"

Chinatsu nodded a little. "The hat looks very nice on you, Kelsey-chan. Is that everything we need?"

Kelsey reached out to take the uniform bag from Chinatsu, reading the back. "Okay...it comes with the socks, but not the shoes. Do you care what kind of shoes you wear with it? We can stop and find you some Mary Janes or something before going back."

Chinatsu lifted the package, raising Kelsey's arm as she refused to let go of it. She studied the photo on front for a moment before shaking her head. "I don't want to wear high heels with this. I can just wear my sneakers with it."

Kelsey pulled the package back and tucked it under her arm with the pirate costume and took off toward the registers with the hat still perched on her head, tilting to one side. Kelsey slapped all three items down on the counter and paid for them before Chinatsu could even fish her wallet out of her bag. Chinatsu blushed in embarrassment, but quietly thanked Kelsey for the gift, the gears of her mind already turning as she tried to think up a way to repay her friend.

Kelsey simply waved off her thanks and offered Chinatsu the plastic bag containing their items before strolling back out into the brisk autumn air to find the car. Chinatsu jogged along behind Kelsey, the plastic bag swinging against her hip as she ran. She finally caught up to Kelsey at the car and opened the passenger door to sit down, resting the shopping bag between her feet. "Do you have any other plans for our meeting before we go back to campus?"

Kelsey shook her head and buckled her seat belt before starting up the car. "Not really. Unless you have somewhere else you want to go?"

Chinatsu looked down at the bag between her feet, repeatedly opening and closing the snap holding her purse shut. "I can't think of anywhere else I'd like to go," she said finally. She wanted to invite Kelsey out to dinner, but she also had to get back to her dorm room. She still had one more midterm to study for before she'd be free to ask Kelsey out. She set her purse on top of the costume store bag and leaned back in her seat as Kelsey drove them back to campus.

*   *   *

On Halloween day, Chinatsu came back from her classes and pulled the sailor uniform out of her closet, still on the hanger where she had left it after running it through the dryer, hoping to work most of the wrinkles out. She turned the hanger around in her hand to check for wrinkles on the surface, but the dress seemed to be hanging as neatly as it ever would for something made so cheaply.

She picked up her bag of makeup and sat cross legged on her bed, peeling off her dress so she sat there in nothing but her leggings and bra. She dug her hand mirror out of the bag and laid her makeup out on the bed in front of her, ready to get to work. She made sure the uniform was laying across the pillow behind her, out of the way, before she opened up her foundation and started applying her mask. She laid on the makeup with a heavier hand than normal, anticipating a dim environment that would make it much harder to see the neutral colors she usually favored.

When her face was done, Chinatsu reached over to the dresser next to the bed and pulled her hairbrush off the top of the dresser. She pulled her hair forward over her shoulder and brushed it to work out the tangles from her windy walk across campus. Then she split her hair into two tails and braided each one over her shoulder. She secured them both with gaudy hair ties she'd found at the campus store and stood up, grabbing her costume, stripping down to her panties before she shimmied her way into the skin tight costume.

Even though the shirt looked loose as it hung over the tiny skirt, both pieces were secured to a skin tight bodysuit underneath, the elastic running the length of her torso. She supposed the only reason it didn't also cover her crotch was just so people would be able to get in and out of it as needed. It couldn't feasibly have a closed neckline _and_ a closed crotch on the same costume. Though the spandex extended over her panties on the bottom, so it wouldn't have been difficult to add a crotch panel that snapped shut like a swimsuit.

She squirmed a little to get the costume settled over her under clothes before she sat down on the bed again to pull the knee high socks on. Luckily, they were made of a similarly stretchy material and clung to her legs in a way that her school uniform socks never did. She smoothed all the wrinkles out of the fabric before sliding her lace-less sneakers on over the socks. She jumped to her feet and walked over to look at herself in the mirror, adjusting the way her braids fell before smiling widely and tilting her head to one side, throwing up the peace sign.

She managed to maintain the look for almost a whole minute before she had to brace herself against the mirror, laughing at the ridiculousness of her outfit. But if Kelsey wanted her to come to the party in costume, she might as well go in character as well. After all, everyone knows how Japanese school girls act, even if they're currently in university and have already given birth to a child.

Chinatsu scooped up her purse and made sure her room keys and ID card were in it before she left the room with a bounce in her step, her skirt flouncing with every step she took. She checked the address Kelsey had sent her before plugging it into her GPS map to make sure she was walking to the right end of campus. Finally, she grabbed her coat off the coat rack by the door, slipped it on over her costume, zipped it up, and headed out to find the party Kelsey had invited her to.

She took the bus from campus to the nearby neighborhood where most of the students lived off campus. There were large apartment buildings next to townhouses with a row of fraternity and sorority houses a couple blocks away, near the rental houses that the graduate students lived in. Probably some of the younger professors as well.

Chinatsu climbed off the bus and walked the few blocks to the row of frat houses, tugging her coat even tighter around herself to ward off the chill. Her winter uniform skirt in high school had been made of wool and the knee socks were thick and warm, covering everything that the skirt didn't. But her costume now was made of thin fabric, probably a polyester, which did nothing to trap her body heat or ward off the wind. She shivered and pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the message Kelsey had left her earlier in the day..

She squinted at the Greek letters on the screen before looking up at the signs hanging from the houses. She didn't want to just walk into the wrong party. The whole point of coming to a Halloween party was to meet up with Kelsey and perhaps ask her out on a date if she was sober enough. Chinatsu didn't know yet if she would try some of the alcohol, but Kelsey had already told her stories about getting drunk during high school parties or at a family party where her uncles would let her sneak sips of beer.

Chinatsu snorted to herself as she imagined the look on her mother's face if her father were to ever give her beer. The woman would probably have a panic attack. The only beer in their house was a single six pack for her father. He would get exactly one can either with supper or after supper as he worked on paperwork at the table. She didn't even think her baby brother had ever tasted beer. She certainly hadn't had the chance. She was usually too busy studying to attend parties on the weekend.

Chinatsu finally spotted the house she was looking for and walked a bit faster, hoping to get out of the cold wind. She stepped up the front steps and knocked on the front door. When nobody answered right away, she studied the grain pattern on the door, wondering if she was expected to just let herself in, especially considering the noise of laughter and conversation audible through the walls. She raised her hand to knock again when the door opened up to reveal a man dressed in a black and white striped suit with spiky blond hair sticking away from his head, looking like it had been spray painted--poorly--to a sickly green color.

The boy grinned at her and flung the door wide open, gesturing to the interior. "C'mon in! The food and drinks are in the kitchen!" He extended the fingers of one hand behind him to catch the door as it bounced back off the wall behind him, stopping it before it could hit him in the ass. "There's games in the basement and a hot tub out back, but that's probably full by now!"

Chinatsu gave him a smile, trying not to let her nerves show on her face, and stepped inside. He shut the door behind her and wandered back into the party, the music barely audible because of the noise of people talking. Chinatsu slipped her coat off and hung it with the others in the open closet by the door. She strolled into the party, half expecting to be accosted by drunk and horny college boys at any moment, but they all kept their distance from her. She scanned the crowd, looking for a familiar flash of brown curls or that ridiculous hat Kelsey had bought at the store.

She didn't see Kelsey in the room, but as she scanned the crowd, she _did_ notice that most of the boys seemed more interested in each other than in the scantily clad girls around them. She smiled and stepped through the room, heading toward the small kitchen, following the smells of pizza and alcohol. She slipped her way into the room, turning to slide through the press of bodies around her. She could just barely make out the oversized feather from Kelsey's hat from deeper in the crowd. She managed to pick out snippets of Kelsey's voice from the commotion around her.

She finally squeezed between two other girls and found herself in a small open space formed by the crowd standing around Kelsey as she recounted a story. Her voice went quiet when she spotted Chinatsu in front of her, her arms flung wide in some gesture. Chinatsu soon found those arms wrapped around her waist, Kelsey's face buried in her shoulder.

"Chinatsu! I was just telling everyone about how _cute_ you are...!"

Chinatsu smiled, her cheeks turning pink. She couldn't be entirely certain given the overwhelming smell of alcohol in the room, but she thought she smelled booze on Kelsey's breath. She gently pushed Kelsey back to a standing position, smiling gently at her. "Will you stay here if I go to get some food and drink?"

"Oh yeah! I was just chatting with some friends I met around campus! You should try the pumpkin ale! It's to *die* for! And the hard cider!"

Chinatsu huffed out an amused puff of air. "I'll try that, Kelsey-chan. Thank you for the tips." She turned to insinuate herself between two of the people to get out, but they just moved aside to let her through. She murmured her thanks and ducked her head out of embarrassment as she snuck out to find the pizza boxes and maybe some soda to drink.

*   *   *

Just over an hour into the party, Chinatsu was practically propping Kelsey up. Kelsey had a few hard drinks and more than a few beers and ciders before Chinatsu managed to convince her to drink soda and water instead of more alcohol. She was worried that Kelsey might end up with alcohol poisoning as it was. She didn't want to end up spending the night in the hospital with her friend or having to watch over her to make sure she didn't choke in her sleep.

Kelsey leaned heavily against her shoulder, her words mumbled and barely audible over the music. Chinatsu just nodded with a small smile and pulled Kelsey closer against her side with one arm, turning to look down into Kelsey's adorably sleepy face. "Kelsey-chan, do you think you can walk back to your room?"

Kelsey scrunched up her face, burying it against Chinatsu's arm with a little shake of her head. Chinatsu laughed gently and reached up to stroke Kelsey's brown curls. She felt Kelsey's lips moving and felt breath gusting across her arm, but she couldn't make out what Kelsey had said. She gently pushed Kelsey to sit upright. "Should I call a taxi?"

Kelsey shook her head sleepily again and tried to burrow in against Chinatsu's side. Chinatsu leaned in closer as Kelsey spoke, but she could barely make out the words "drove here" and "leave car." Chinatsu sighed and let Kelsey curl up against her side, looking down at the ridiculous pirate hat at their feet. She hooked it with one foot and lifted it up to place it on her own head, pushing it back when it threatened to fall over her eyes. "Well, is there someplace here we can stay, instead?"

Kelsey raised one shoulder in a shrug, her eyes closed. Chinatsu nudged her back into a sitting position and stood up before Kelsey could fall back against her side. She reached out with one hand to help Kelsey steady herself, looking around the room for someone who might be sober enough to give her the information she needed. She glanced back at Kelsey, who was swaying from side to side, but seemed more or less stable, and she set the large hat on her friend's lap before ducking into the crowd.

She made her way to one of the boys who looked older than the rest and she tapped his arm to get his attention. He turned to face her, still slightly unsteady in his movements, but not as bad as most of the people in the room. "Oh, hey, Kelsey's friend! What can I do you for?"

Chinatsu frowned, wondering if he was also not a native speaker, but he didn't seem to have an accent. She shook her head and reminded herself of the task at hand. "Do you have a place that Kelsey-chan can spend the night? I don't think she can leave right now. She is too tired and drunk."

The boy looked around the room, his eyes widening just a bit when he looked in Kelsey's direction. "Yikes, yeah. I can see that. We got a couple spare rooms upstairs that drunk people end up in after parties. Want me to help her up to one?"

Chinatsu nodded gratefully, smiling at him. "Yes, please! That would be very much appreciated!"

The boy drained his cup and set it down on a nearby table before he pushed past Chinatsu, heading straight for Kelsey. Chinatsu turned and followed him, ready to help him support Kelsey's weight. She might not be very strong, but she must have built up some kind of muscle while she was carrying Daichi around, both before and after he was born. She swore that he must have weighed twice as much near the end of her pregnancy as he did after he was born, though he was a relatively large baby considering the size of her body. She was just glad that the painkillers worked so well on her for the birth. She  could have been in much worse pain than she had been, considering that she had been a virgin going into labor.

She reached out to steady Kelsey's arm as the boy got her on her feet. Kelsey was leaning heavily against his side, the pirate hat at her feet once more. Chinatsu bent to scoop it off the ground and tucked it under one arm, the feather tickling the back of her neck as she hurried the few steps forward to catch up with Kelsey and the older boy. He was guiding Kelsey toward the stairs, one arm wrapped around her shoulder as he bent his head to speak to her. At least Chinatsu hoped they were only speaking.

She didn't want to lose her chance with Kelsey before she even was even able to ask for a date. She strongly suspected that Kelsey liked her, but she wasn't sure if Kelsey liked boys just as much as girls or if she was, like Chinatsu herself, only really interested in other women. Chinatsu had tried dating her share of boys in middle school and high school, but none of them had ever sparked the same interest as she got looking at the female models in magazines. And those teenage crushes paled in comparison to her feelings for Kelsey.

She had even let herself be pressured into making out with a boy once in high school. He had put his hand on her crotch, playing with her through her uniform skirt and underpants. Not wanting to be rude, she had reciprocated his touches. Within moments of her touching his erection, though, he had gone stiff and made a strangled noise before he pulled away from her and left her sitting alone on the low wall by the sports fields with a wet spot on her panties, spit all over her mouth, and no more of an inclination to date boys than she'd ever had.

She followed along behind Kelsey and the boy, trying not to let her jealousy eat her from the inside out as she walked up the stairs slowly, reaching up to brace Kelsey from behind so she didn't tip over backwards. The boy finally managed to lift Kelsey up the last few steps to flat ground at the top. Once Kelsey got her feet back under her, she continued shuffling along at the boy's side until he stopped to open a door and helped Kelsey inside. Chinatsu followed a few steps behind, just in time to see the boy helping Kelsey sit down on the edge of a small bed.

He crouched down in front of her to look her in the eyes. "You can sleep here tonight, Kels, but you gotta clear out once you're sober, okay? You know what the school and the cops think about the frats having too many guests." When Kelsey nodded, he smiled at her and patted one knee, covered as it was in a striped thigh high stocking. "Okay, cool. Just sleep on your side and you should be okay." He stood up and gave Chinatsu a nod and a smile before he left them alone in the room, Kelsey still just sitting on the edge of the bed.

Chinatsu stepped over to Kelsey and dropped the pirate hat on the floor by the head of the bed. "Why don't you lay down, Kelsey-chan? You look very sleepy."

Kelsey tipped her head back to look up at Chinatsu. Chinatsu was sure that Kelsey was trying to make eye contact, but her eyes refused to focus on any single point as her gaze darted through the area _around_ Chinatsu. "...stay wi' me?" she finally got out after a few seconds of working her mouth before her voice finally came out in a croak.

Chinatsu smiled and nodded at Kelsey. "I'll stay with you, Kelsey-chan. Lay down on the bed so I know you're safe and I'll stay with you tonight, yes?"

Kelsey returned Chinatsu's smile, albeit more shakily, and tipped sideways to fall onto the edge of the single pillow. Her wavy hair piled up around her head before the ends fanned off against the pillow. Chinatsu helped Kelsey lift her legs onto the bed when she looked like she was about to fall off, making sure her friend was settled safely on one half of the bed before she took off her shoes and knee socks to climb onto the bed behind Kelsey.

She snuggled close to Kelsey's back, draping an arm over Kelsey's clothed hip to keep her from rolling off the small bed. Not at all because she wished she could run her hands up the insides of Kelsey's thighs and touch her privates. She had never had the chance to touch another girl there, but she hoped that with the experience of doing it to herself, she would at least be able to treat Kelsey better than that high school boy who ran off as soon as he had his fun. But she'd have to wait for Kelsey to sober up before she even thought of trying anything. She didn't want to take advantage of her friend while she was drunk and passing out.

Chinatsu tightened her hold on Kelsey as Kelsey's limbs went slack in her sleep, She leaned her head forward and pressed a quick kiss to the skin behind Kelsey's ear before she lay back and waited to fall asleep herself.

*   *   *

Chinatsu woke with a start when she was tugged almost to the edge of the small bed, her arm suddenly empty. She blinked a few times as she tried to adjust to the bright morning light. She finally scooted to the edge of the bed to look down at the floor, only to find Kelsey on her hands and knees, looking a bit nauseous.

Chinatsu swung her legs out of bed and leaned over to rub Kelsey's back gently. "Can you get to the bathroom?"

Kelsey groaned and carefully climbed to her feet, keeping one hand over her mouth until she looked a bit more settled. She finally answered Chinatsu once she had pulled her hand away. "I'll have to make it, won't I? I don't want to pay for the carpet cleaning..."

Chinatsu stood next to Kelsey, still barefoot from the night before. "I'll help you if you can tell me where the bathroom is." She spoke softly so as not to cause Kelsey any more pain. She had read about hangovers in books before, both fictional and factual. She didn't have much down time at her bookstore job back home, but she had been able to flip through some books when she was stocking shelves and she was able to get books for a discount, though she hadn't dared to spend much of her money.

She wrapped her arm around Kelsey's waist as Kelsey's arm went around her shoulder. Chinatsu pushed back against Kelsey to support her weight as they shuffled down the hall toward the restrooms. Chinatsu smiled as she remembered meeting Yamada-sensei for the first time at the bookstore, days before she was due to meet him at the clinic to introduce herself as his surrogate. She technically didn't get the job because she had met him at the bookstore, but sometimes she still thought that if she hadn't been working at the bookstore, she might never have gotten the chance to work with Yamada-sensei.

Even though he was not the one who had arranged for the baby, the look on his face at every step of the process assured her that the boy she was carrying was very much wanted and would be going to a good home. Yamada-sensei had trouble balancing his work and his family, but Tachibana-san was standing by, ready to help him. Between the two of them, she had been able to leave the country for university when Daichi was only about six months old, and she didn't worry about him, though that might also have to do with the fact that Yamada-sensei insisted on keeping in touch via emails and text messages and he always sent her a photo of Daichi with each letter.

Kelsey reached out to grab the door knob on one of the rooms, but her sweat slick hand slipped around on the polished metal, unable to get a good grip. Chinatsu stopped her reminiscing and reached for the door, nudging Kelsey's hand to one side to open the door, revealing a small bathroom with a single toilet, a small sink between the toilet and the door, and a shower stall set into an alcove in the far wall, the shower curtain barely going past the low wall meant to keep it in.

Kelsey staggered forward a couple steps and fell to her knees in front of the toilet, clutching the seat with one hand as she pushed one finger into her mouth. Chinatsu hurried forward and grabbed as much of Kelsey's hair as she could manage before Kelsey gripped the toilet seat with both hands, vomiting into the bowl.

Chinatsu squeezed her eyes shut and turned her head away, trying to shut out the sound of retching and semi-digested food hitting the water in the toilet. She scrunched up her nose as well, trying to shut out the smell with even less success than she had blocking out the sounds. Still, she held Kelsey's hair up away from the toilet bowl as she waited for the noises to stop. After several long seconds, Kelsey gave a few final dry heaves and there was the sound of water rushing as Kelsey flushed the toilet, carrying away her vomit.

Chinatsu finally released Kelsey's hair when Kelsey scooted back on her knees, away from the toilet to lean against the tiled wall behind her, breathing heavily. Her face was pale and sweaty, except for the few mottled red splotches across her cheeks. Chinatsu made sure Kelsey was settled before she walked over to grab a small paper cup from the stack on the sink, filling it with cool water.

She offered the small rinse cup to Kelsey, only big enough for a few dozen milliliters of water. Kelsey took it gratefully, flashing a wan smile at Chinatsu as she tossed the cup back much like she had with her shots the night before. Chinatsu took the empty cup from her to refill it. Kelsey swished the water from side to side in her mouth, her cheeks bulging when the water reached the sides of her mouth. Kelsey leaned forward and spit the water into the toilet bowl moments before Chinatsu handed her a fresh cup.

Kelsey took the cup again, her smile slightly stronger this time as she tossed the water into her mouth, her throat working as she finally swallowed some water. Kelsey gave Chinatsu a grateful look and shuffled forward to set the paper cup on the edge of the sink. "Not to be an ungrateful bitch, but, uh... I gotta piss like a racehorse so if you wouldn't mind...uh...leaving?"

Chinatsu felt her face grow warm and caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, her cheeks blazing red. "O-of course, Kelsey-chan. I'll...I'll go get our things from the bedroom." She turned to open the door and shut it carefully behind her before rushing back down the hall to the room they had crashed in. She sat on the edge of the bed to get her socks and shoes back on before she grabbed the large pirate hat, tucking it under her arm again. She walked back to the bathroom at a slower, much more sedate pace. She started to feel the pressure on her bladder as she walked and hoped that Kelsey wouldn't take too long so that she would get a chance in the bathroom as well.

She stopped outside the bathroom door and rapped gently on the wooden door. "Kelsey-chan, are you finished?"

She heard Kelsey grunt, even through the door, and the faint rustle of fabric. "Yeah, I guess so. I would _kill_ for a shower, though. You need to piss, too?"

"Ah, yes, please..." Chinatsu cleared her throat and stepped away from the door as the handle rattled a few times before Kelsey managed to get the door open. Chinatsu offered Kelsey the hat with a shy smile and Kelsey's face broke out into a wide grin, looking more like her normal self despite her waxy complexion and residual cold sweat.

"Oh, cool! It survived the night! I swear to God, every year I lose a piece of my costume at a party like this. Ever since I got too  old to go out trick or treating, at least..." Kelsey dusted off the felt, fluffed up the feather, and plopped the hat back on top of her head, though she didn't look as radiant as she had the night before with her hair hanging limp around her face.

Chinatsu bit her lip to keep from leaning in to give Kelsey a kiss before she slipped around Kelsey and into the bathroom. After all, Kelsey had been throwing up not even ten minutes ago. "You look very nice," she said, holding onto the door with both hands. "Maybe I can walk you home after this?"

Kelsey laughed, hands toying with the ragged edge of her pirate skirt. "Well, I mean, I drove here, but I guess I could drive us back to campus and you can walk me from the parking lot?"

"I'd like that," Chinatsu said before she backed fully into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her, her thoughts racing. At least Kelsey didn't seem to remember the way she'd been leaning up against that boy last night. Perhaps Chinatsu still had a chance to ask Kelsey out, but she couldn't put it off much longer, exams be damned.

*   *   *

Chinatsu climbed out of Kelsey's car once it was safely parked by Kelsey's dorm building. The drive had been slow but still harrowing as she’d had to speak to Kelsey to help her stay awake and focused on driving. Chinatsu still wore her mock uniform from the party, though her skin crawled at the thought of spending so long in such a cheap and now-dirty outfit. But if Kelsey could walk around so easily in her pirate costume, Chinatsu should be able to manage another hour in her dirty costume before she needed to shower and put on some real clothes. She walked around the car, holding her hand out to Kelsey as the driver side door finally opened up.

Kelsey swung her legs out of the car, her heeled boots bracing against the pavement as she took Chinatsu's hand to steady herself. Chinatsu leaned back against Kelsey's weight to keep from falling over and Kelsey finally got on her feet, wearing a pair of oversized sunglasses under her oversized pirate hat. Chinatsu kept holding Kelsey's hand, guiding her away from the car before reaching around to shut the car door. She could just barely see Kelsey squinting her eyes against the bright sun behind her glasses.

"Just get your key card out and I'll help you to the door," Chinatsu said, speaking softly so that she didn't make Kelsey's headache even worse. She shifted sideways to walk next to Kelsey, one arm around her waist, their hands still entwined in front of them. She smiled when Kelsey leaned against her side and she rubbed her hand over a few inches of Kelsey's waist. "The sidewalk is coming up. It's the ramp, but it's still sticking up a little. Watch your toes."

Kelsey made a rumbling noise, though it sounded grateful to Chinatsu's ears, and made sure to pick her feet up instead of shuffling into the sidewalk and falling on her face. Chinatsu turned them both once they were well and truly up on the sidewalk, leading Kelsey around the building to the front door. She noticed the looks that the other students gave them, some of them supportive, but some of them clearly disgusted or angry. She pretended that she hadn't noticed the latter and she guided Kelsey along to the door. When Kelsey didn't raise her hand, Chinatsu glanced over to see that Kelsey's eyes were closed, though she had still been moving her feet, so she was probably still awake. Either that or a habitual sleep walker.

Chinatsu nudged Kelsey with her shoulder. "Kelsey-chan, you have to swipe your card so we can get inside..."

Kelsey grumbled but reached into her pocket with her free hand and pulled out her student ID. It took a few tries and a bit of help from Chinatsu in the end, but Kelsey swiped her card and Chinatsu opened the door for them, ushering Kelsey into the relatively dim lobby. Chinatsu left Kelsey shuffling slowly and steadily toward her dorm to sign herself in as a guest, then hurried to catch up. "Do you think it's dark enough to take your glasses off?"

Kelsey reached up with one hand to lift the glasses, squinted at the incandescent lights and dropped her sunglasses back down. "Nope," she said and reached for Chinatsu's hand before continuing down the hall. Chinatsu felt a swell of happiness in her breast that Kelsey had been the one to initiate contact this time. It showed that she must have missed Chinatsu's skin on hers and Chinatsu gave her hand a gentle squeeze. Kelsey squeezed back a moment later and stopped in the middle of the hallway, muttering to herself.

Moments later, Kelsey shoved her hand into her pocket and came out with her set of keys, jangling stridently in the quiet corridor. Kelsey winced and muttered a few choice insults, questioning the keys' parentage as she tried to muffle the noises with minimal success. Chinatsu stepped closer to the door and Kelsey reached out to get the keys into the lock, even though that meant dragging them across the dead bolt until they slipped into place. Kelsey turned the keys and shoved the door open, leaning heavily on it as she tugged her keys free.

Chinatsu reached up to hold the door open, waiting for Kelsey to enter the room before following her inside. Kelsey walked through the small shared room and opened her bedroom door with a heavy groan. "Thank fuck," she muttered as she walked into the bedroom, Chinatsu close behind her. Kelsey snatched the pirate hat off her head and tossed it generally toward her closet. Chinatsu picked it up off the floor and set it more securely on the small shelving unit inside the closet.

Kelsey flopped down onto the lower bunk in the room. Chinatsu sat down at the foot of the bed to help Kelsey pull off her boots and striped stockings. "Do you have any pills you can take for your headache?" she asked, rolling Kelsey's socks up before standing to place them in the dirty laundry basket.

Kelsey groaned and threw her arm over her eyes. "In the cabinet in the bathroom. It's the bottle of Tylenol." Kelsey peeked out from under the shelter of her arm with a wry smile, still looking rather worse for the wear. "Don't suppose you could grab me some?"

"Of course, Kelsey-chan. I'll be right back." Chinatsu straightened up and checked that the bedroom door was unlocked before she left and locked herself out. The handle turned easily enough in her hand from the outside and Kelsey hadn't used her keys to open it, so Chinatsu let it slip shut behind her, turning to look at the two other doors in the room. One of them lay directly across the shared space, so Chinatsu assumed it belonged to a different pair of girls. Instead, she turned to the third door and opened it to find a shared bathroom, even if it was only slightly bigger than the one in the fraternity.

She spotted the small cabinet above the sink and opened the metal door, scanning the small shelves until she found the bottle labeled Tylenol. She turned the bottle over to scan the small text on the label, but couldn't find the dosing information. She figured it had to be there, but she was not proficient enough to spot which bit of tiny text spoke about dosage instead of dangerous side effects or ingredients.

Instead, she checked the size of the pills on the front label and nodded more confidently when the measurements were in grams and milligrams instead of some American nonsense measurement. She opened the bottle and tipped two pills into her palm before filling one of the small paper cups with water. She carried her spoils back to the bedroom, setting them on the dresser that served as Kelsey's night stand. "I brought you two. I hope that was okay?"

Kelsey rolled onto her side and propped one elbow under her, reaching for the pills on the dresser. She tossed them both into her mouth, chasing them down with the small cup of water before she responded. "For a headache like this? Yeah, two pills is fine. It might even be enough to get me functional by this afternoon."

Chinatsu sat down at the foot of Kelsey's bed again. "You should get out of these clothes and into something more comfortable. Is this your dresser?" Kelsey just let out an indeterminate grunt and rolled over to face the wall.

Kelsey flipped back and forth in bed a few more times before settling on her back with her arm braced over her eyes again. "I'll change after a nap. Thanks for the help."

Chinatsu smiled over at Kelsey, knowing Kelsey hadn't seen the expression on her face. With Kelsey feeling so under the weather at the moment, perhaps her question would come as even more of a surprise. Chinatsu gently nudged Kelsey's feet back toward the center of the bed. Kelsey somehow seemed to always end up with her legs half off the bed whenever someone sat on her bed.

Chinatsu stood up before Kelsey could shift her feet back to the edge of the bed. "I have a question for you, Kelsey-chan."

Kelsey let out a curious moan, cracking one eye to peek out from under her elbow. "Whassat?"

Chinatsu reached down to push a few stray curls away from Kelsey's face. "I was wondering if you would like to go on a date with me sometime?"

Kelsey bolted upright in the bed a few seconds after Chinatsu spoke, about when her mind caught up to the conversation. She immediately looked ill and flopped back onto the bed again with a groan.

"You do not have to answer right away," Chinatsu said gently. "I know you're not feeling well, but I wanted to ask you before one of the...ah....fraternity boys did so."

Kelsey laughed sharply, her arm over her eyes once more. "Better than half of them are gay, Chinatsu-chan. And even if one of the bi guys hit on me, guys are just..kind of gross. No idea why my cousins like them so much..." Kelsey rolled her arm up by an inch to reveal her heavy lidded eyes, looking half asleep already. "But yeah, I'd be down for a date. We can talk about the details later..."

Chinatsu brushed more hair away from Kelsey's face before standing straight again, her heart thumping quickly in her chest. "I'll be in touch," she said and turned to grab the door handle. "Please feel better, Kelsey-chan...!" Chinatsu escaped from the bedroom and then the suite, leaning against the wall outside for a moment, trying to catch her breath before she went to check out. She had been half certain that Kelsey would reject her, but now she had a tentative date with her speaking partner. A romantic date and not just another meeting to be more specific.

Chinatsu practically floated to the front desk, signed herself out, and left the dorm building to walk all the way across campus. She opened the door to her room and pulled a pair of pajamas off a hanger before tossing her towel over her shoulder and nabbing her basket of toiletries. Even if their date wasn't that night, Chinatsu still wanted to peel off her costume, reeking as it did of beer and smoke, and scrub her skin pink before crawling into bed to read her assigned chapters. She eyed the pile of books on her desk and let out a sigh. She then turned back to the door and left her dorm room to head for the communal showers to wipe the filth and sweat off her skin.


	5. Thanksgiving Break

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kelsey decides to spend her Thanksgiving break with Chinatsu at school. They make plans to go out on a date, but the weather has other plans...

Kelsey looked over her bank balance and sighed, checking the price of a plane ticket home again. In spite of what she wanted, neither number had changed in the last ten minutes. She could technically afford the price of the round trip ticket but it would leave her with almost no money left over for the inevitable shopping trips and meals her family would take her for. 

She sighed yet again and finally closed the ticket booking site, picking up her phone to shoot a message over to her mother. She didn't expect the news to go over well and she knew her mother would try to buy her a ticket home, but she also knew that her mother couldn't spare the cost of a ticket any more than she herself could. She fully expected to get into an argument over it, perhaps one that she would lose, but perhaps if she could find someone to stay with while the school closed down for Thanksgiving, her mother might see the sense in Kelsey staying put.

Kelsey picked up her phone and idly scrolled through her contacts, trying to remember who was living off campus and might be able to offer her a couch to sleep on. While she poked and prodded at the issue with her mind, she found herself tapping on her message chain with Chinatsu. They had only managed to go on one date so far, and it was just to the food court in the student center, but at least it showed that Chinatsu was interested in her as more than just a friend.

_ Hey, Chinatsu-chan. You got any plans for Thanksgiving? I think I'm gonna try to find someone to crash with so I don't have to pay for a ticket back home. Maybe we can meet up over break for another date? _

Kelsey flipped back to her contact list and pulled her pad of sticky notes over to her and snatched a pen out of her pencil cup, starting a list of names. She wrote down the name of everyone she thought had an apartment off campus or rented one of the small houses with other students. But before she could call the first person on her list, her phone buzzed and a notification flashed along the top of the screen to let her know that Chinatsu had responded.

_ Hello, Kelsey-chan. I do not have any plans for the upcoming break except to study for my final exams. I have to stay in the special dorm set aside for foreign students who cannot leave campus. If you are staying in town, I would be more than happy to meet you for a date. Please let me know. _

Kelsey smiled at the message, then she read it over again, the gears in her brain spinning. 

_ You said there's a dorm for foreign students to stay in? Do you know if you have a roommate for the break yet? Maybe I could crash in your room if you don't have anyone in there with you? It would be nice if we could share a room, right? _

This time, Kelsey held her phone, watching and waiting eagerly during the few minutes it took Chinatsu to write out a reply.

_ The school has not said that I will have a roommate, but I believe I will be staying in someone else's room. I was told to only pack a small bag of clothes and toiletries to use until I go back to my own room. Are you allowed to stay in a room with me? _

Kelsey laughed quietly to herself and tapped out her own reply.

_ Maybe not, but what the school doesn't know won't hurt them. If you end up not getting a roommate, I can just pack a bag and stay in the room with you for a few days until classes start again. It'll be fun. Like a sleep over! _

_ I will let you know more when I find out. _

Kelsey glanced back down at her list of names and tapped her way back to her contact list, texting the first few names if she could crash with them. She was pretty sure she'd be able to sneak in and spend the break with Chinatsu, but she wanted to have a backup plan in case her plans fell through because if she couldn't afford a plane ticket, God knows that she wouldn't be able to afford a hotel for a holiday weekend, either. Even a cheap motel. They would all jack their prices up to take advantage of the influx of people visiting family.

She got responses from a couple of her friends before the day was out and she wore a smile as she finally dialed her mother's phone number to break the bad news.

*   *   *

Kelsey finally heard back from Chinatsu the day before the break started. Kelsey had her back packed regardless. She'd need a small suitcase whether she was sleeping with Chinatsu or with one of her friends off campus. She picked up her phone and tapped over to Chinatsu's message, biting down on her lower lip as she waited the few seconds for the messages to load in on her cheap phone.

_ Kelsey-chan, I do not have a room mate for the school break. If you're sure that we won't get in trouble by sharing a room, it would be nice to spend more time with you. _

Kelsey grinned from ear to ear and pumped her fist in the air, hurrying to grab her suitcase out of the closet.

_ Just text me tomorrow when you get settled into your room and let me know where it is. I'll bring my things with me. I'll just hang out in town until you're ready. I have to be gone by noon tomorrow at the latest. _

Kelsey tugged her boots on and snatched up her keys, dragging her suitcase behind her to her car. She popped the trunk open and heaved the bag inside before slamming the trunk shut. And again. And once more before the latch finally caught and held, keeping the trunk shut. She nodded to herself once and turned to head back inside, planning to study her ass off until it was time to leave so she could have the most time possible with Chinatsu over break. Their break would be pretty damn boring if it was just the two of them sitting around someone else's dorm room, studying for the better part of a week.

*   *   *

Kelsey was strolling listlessly through the mall the next day when the call finally came at around three in the afternoon.

_ I'm in my room. No room mate, like I was told. I'm in the dorm building on the south end of campus, furthest away from the campus buildings. Let me know when you arrive and I will come let you inside. They said that only the cards of students who are staying here will work. _

Kelsey quickly stepped to one side, out of the walking path as she ducked between two store entrances, leaning against the wall to reply.

_ Great! I'm on my way. I'll call when I pull in and we can meet at the door. See you then, Chinatsu-chan! _

Kelsey pushed off the wall and shoved her way back into the flow of foot traffic, though she managed to avoid actually shoving anyone this time. She strode briskly toward the entrance of the mall, weaving in and out of the crowd to get through slightly faster. Thank God above that she wasn't planning to go out for Black Friday sales on her own. They were always so hectic when her mother and aunts dragged her along to help carry things. More than once, Kelsey had ended up with bruised feet and she had even been knocked over once or twice when she was smaller, before she could hold her own against the adults crowding around her.

She managed to make her way to the door and escaped into the freezing cold air, shivering when the cold wind hit her full in the face. The weather reports were saying they might get snow by Thanksgiving. Which was perfect for the people who got to stay home all day in their warm houses, sitting in front of fireplaces to watch TV after dinner. It wasn't quite as perfect for staying in a college dorm room when the school already seemed to resent paying the heating bills while the school was  _ open _ . Kelsey imagined they would try to turn the heat down even lower for break, even for the building that still had people in it. She had made sure to pack warm clothes for the coming week.

Kelsey dropped into the driver's seat of her car and started the engine before pulling out of her parking spot. Some asshole who came tearing ass down the aisles stopped behind her, leaning impatiently on his horn. Kelsey rolled her eyes and flipped him the bird before she cranked her wheels around the other way to take off down the aisle. The asshole beeped at her twice more before he spun his wheel to take her spot in the crowded lot. 

Kelsey somehow managed to keep her cool as she drove through pre-holiday traffic back to campus. She looked beside her at the small bag on her passenger seat at a stop light. She hoped that Chinatsu liked the gift she'd bought. She technically didn't have to buy Chinatsu a gift, but when she saw the fat little stuffed unicorn in a store, she hadn't been able to resist picking it up.

Kelsey almost drove to her own parking lot out of habit, but caught herself before she pulled onto the winding driveway leading to the east dorms. She kept going straight along the road, heading to the south end of campus. She pulled into the south dorm driveway some ten minutes later and followed the winding road to the parking lot. 

There were very few cars in the lot, but she supposed that only made sense if they were keeping the foreign students here. Most of them probably didn't have licenses, much less cars of their own. The few cars left in the lot probably belonged to students from Canada or Mexico, though most likely Canada given how far north they were. Mexican students would have been better served just flying in like the student from overseas.

Kelsey parked her car in one of the spots closest to the building and climbed out, snagging the little paper bag with her fingertips on the way out. She kicked the door shut with a booted foot and walked around to the trunk to grab her bags. She set her suitcase on the floor and slung her backpack over her shoulders before shutting the trunk.

She took a deep breath, pulled out her phone, and set a short message to Chinatsu before walking up to the building, shivering when a blast of wintry air hit her in the face. Luckily, Chinatsu got her message and met her at the front door, pushing the door out just far enough for Kelsey to slip inside with her suitcase. Kelsey stopped just inside the door and let go of her suitcase to wrap Chinatsu up in a quick hug. "Thank you so much for letting me stay with you, Chinatsu-chan."

She pulled back to give Chinatsu a happy smile, hoping that Chinatsu would be able to see just how happy she felt inside to be spending so much time with her...girlfriend? She liked the sound of girlfriend, but they'd only been on one date so far so it might be too soon for that. She gave Chinatsu a quick peck on the cheek before finally releasing her and grabbing her suitcase. "So which room is yours? I can't wait to spend a few days alone with you."

Chinatsu smiled shyly, her cheeks pink as she turned to face the hallway, her hand brushing against Kelsey's briefly. "It's down this hallway, Kelsey-chan..." she said softly, starting to walk off. Kelsey grabbed the handle of her suitcase and jogged forward a few steps to catch up before slowing down to a walk.

She followed Chinatsu to one of the doors and waited while Chinatsu unlocked the door. Chinatsu gestured at Kelsey to enter. Kelsey chuckled and bowed to Chinatsu before hurrying through the door so they could close the door. Kelsey dragged her suitcase over to the beds and left it at the foot of the bed. "I know you have to study for your tests, so I'm okay with spending our time just, like, studying together... Maybe we can study for bio?" Kelsey cleared her throat as she realized the double entendre in what she said and hoped that Chinatsu's mind wasn't as dirty as her own.

Chinatsu smiled and sat down on the bottom bunk, scooting up to the head of the bed to pick her textbook back up. "I would like to study with you as well," Chinatsu said, propping the book up between her thighs. "But not yet. Please, sit, and get some work done so we can go out later."

Kelsey pulled her Japanese book out of her backpack, then grabbed her notebook before settling down next to Chinatsu on the bed to start her homework.

*   *   *

Kelsey looked up from her bio textbook and reached up to rub at the back of her neck, trying to work the kinks out of her muscles. "I think it's time for another break, Chinatsu-chan..." She moved her book to one side, sticking her pencil between the pages to mark her space. "My neck hurts and I can't even feel my ass anymore."

Chinatsu tucked a cute bookmark into her textbook and closed it, stretching out in her spot like a cat, mouth opened wide in a yawn. She dropped her hands back onto her closed book and turned to look at Kelsey. "Do you feel more prepared for our next quiz?"

Kelsey just shook her head and tossed her book down to the foot of the bed, climbing off to pace the room and limber up her body after a long study session. Her head buzzed with information as she paced and she wasn't sure she'd even be able to remember it all in ten minutes, never mind at their test in a week. "I don't really know. Ask me again tomorrow or something. This stuff needs time to settle out, I think."

Chinatsu scooted forward to sit on the edge of the bed and Kelsey could feel Chinatsu's eyes tracking her, even when she turned away from the bed. There was a barely there shuff of fabric rubbing against fabric and Kelsey felt Chinatsu standing behind her, radiating heat. Kelsey turned and looked down a couple inches to meet Chinatsu's eyes. Chinatsu didn't back off like Kelsey expected from what little she knew of Japanese people. Chinatsu held her ground instead, turning her small smile on Kelsey. If Kelsey didn't already have a huge crush on Chinatsu, a smile like that would send her tumbling head over heels into one.

Chinatsu blinked a couple times, looking up at Kelsey from under her dark lashes. "So what is the tradition here for Thanksgiving? At home, KFC promotes this...time as a time to order a large bucket of chicken and eat with your family. It is the one time of year that they accept pre-orders for their food. And it is still crowded all day when everyone stops to pick up their food."

Kelsey laughed quietly and reached forward to brush her fingers along the back of Chinatsu's hand, suppressing a shivery thrill when Chinatsu grabbed hold of her fingers. "Well, that's kind of what it's like over here, but families will get together and all cook their own food. Lots of people look down on people who are too poor for a full meal or who don't have family to eat with." Kelsey squeezed Chinatsu's hand a little when the shadow of a frown passed over her pretty face. "Don't worry about me. My family is plenty big enough. It'll be nice to have a quiet thanksgiving instead of the chaos that is holidays with my family..."

Chinatsu huffed out a short laugh and squeezed Kelsey's hand in return. "But I would still feel bad for keeping you stuck inside studying on a holiday... Are there restaurants that we can eat at?"

"Yeah, probably. Like I said, not everyone can be with family on Thanksgiving so there's usually takeout places open. Or some fast food places. Or the restaurants you go to at three in the morning when the clubs kick you out and you're, just,  _ super _ hungry..." Kelsey shifted her weight to one foot when her hip started to bother her.

"Then, will you go out with me tomorrow and we can eat a meal together? Like family?" Chinatsu kept looking up at her through her dark eyelashes and Kelsey's heart started pounding in her chest as her mouth suddenly went dry, her tongue sticking to the roof of her mouth. 

She nodded dumbly until she could finally get her voice to cooperate again. "Y-yeah, that sounds... That sounds great, Chinatsu-chan. I'm...really looking forward to going on a date."

"Good. So am I," Chinatsu said before she suddenly leaned in and tipped her head back to give Kelsey a quick peck on the lips. It was all very chaste and Kelsey had certainly had more intense kisses, even within the last year, but for some reason Chinatsu's kiss set her heart to thumping like a bass drum and made her cheeks feel like they would catch fire at any moment.

Kelsey wrapped her arms around Chinatsu and pulled the other woman closer, burying her burning face against Chinatsu's shoulder, breathing in the smell of her shampoo. She felt Chinatsu stiffen in her arms for a split second before a gentle hand came up to stroke her hair, just like it had on Halloween, almost a month ago. "Did I do something wrong?" Chinatsu asked, her voice barely above a whisper and her breath ruffling some of Kelsey's curls.

Kelsey shook her head and took another deep breath before pulling back slightly to look Chinatsu in the face now that her cheeks were merely warm instead of feverish. "N-no. You're fine. I just...I didn't expect that from you. You're not usually the...the touchy feely kind of person..."

Chinatsu smoothed her hand over Kelsey's hair again and leaned in for another chaste kiss. "Perhaps you are teaching me more than language skills, Kelsey-chan."

Kelsey laughed nervously and buried her face against Chinatsu's shoulder again as her face got burning hot again. "I swear you're going to be the death of me..." she muttered into Chinatsu's shirt, hugging her tight. "You're just...too cute to be flirting like that..."

Chinatsu laughed again, bright and clear like a bell. "If I call to order a pizza, would you mind driving out to pick it up?"

Kelsey finally released Chinatsu after a few moments and stood up straight, nodding. "Yeah, I can go on a pizza run.  What kind of soda do you want?" At least it felt like her blush had died down to embers again. Though at least running to the pizza shop in the cold and the wind would help cool her off from Chinatsu's kisses.

"I don't normally drink soda, so get whatever you like. I will probably try some of it if that is alright with you?"

"Yeah. That...that sounds good, Chinatsu-chan. I'm just...gonna change into some real clothes while you call." 

Kelsey stepped back from Chinatsu before turning to dig through her suitcase, coming up with a pair of dark blue jeans and a warm sweater. She glanced over her shoulder to find Chinatsu dialing a number on her phone. She was still facing in Kelsey's direction more or less, but she didn't seem to be paying any particular attention, so Kelsey turned her back on Chinatsu and pulled her sleep shirt off over her head, her breasts hanging heavy against her chest. She glanced at the bra hanging over the handle of her suitcase and shook her head before pulling the sweater on. She was just running to pick up some pizza. She didn't need to shore up the girls for a quick errand like that.

She quickly shoved her sweatpants off her hips and let them fall to the floor, revealing her panty clad ass for a few moments as she shimmied her way into her jeans. She knew she should probably move up a size, but her current jeans still fastened around her and the extra snugness through the crotch made her ass look amazing, so she kept them around, even if they were a pain to get in and out of sometimes. She zipped up the fly after sucking in her gut and shoved her feet into her boots.

She listened with one ear as Chinatsu ordered a medium pepperoni pizza and grabbed her coat off the top bunk, sliding it on over her shoulders. She zipped up, made sure she had both her phone and her wallet, and turned to kiss Chinatsu on the cheek. "I'm heading out. I'll let you know when I get back with the food."

Chinatsu simply nodded with a smile as she finished up talking on the phone. Kelsey wanted to get a head start because it looked like the snow storm was already moving in. She left the building, squinting almost immediately as the wind drove snowflakes into her face. She lifted her arm to shield her face as she trooped out into the storm.

*   *   *

When Kelsey finally got back to the dorm, the snow was already up to her ankles and didn't show any signs of letting up. The snow on the roads had been largely packed down to an icy slush, but the roads looked like they would probably get a lot worse before the plows managed to get through and with the college closed down for the rest of the weekend, there was nobody to come plow out the roads on campus. 

Kelsey texted Chinatsu from the safety of the car before she climbed out and grabbed the pizza box and a few bags full of soda, chips, candy, and several instant ramen cups in case they got stuck inside for a few days. She knew Chinatsu had brought an electric kettle with her because they had been using it to drink tea for the last few days. Kelsey was used to just microwaving her mug of water, but once she had experienced the convenience first hand, she couldn't deny how handy it was to have something like that.

She trudged around the building to the front door, kicking drifts of snow to the sides as she forged a path through it. Chinatsu met her at the front door again, pushing the door outward. Even though the areas right in front of the doors were covered by an overhang--to keep them clear of snow, presumably--there was still a few inches piled up against the door where the wind had pushed it. Kelsey got inside the door and out of the way before stamping her boots against the floor, walking in a small circle to knock most of the snow free as Chinatsu pulled the door shut. There were already a few tendrils of melting snow snaking their way in from the door where the wind had blown them inside.

Kelsey fell into step behind Chinatsu, following her back to their temporary dorm room. "It's coming down pretty hard out there. Unless it lets up, we might not be able to get off campus tomorrow..."

Chinatsu opened up the dorm room door and walked inside, holding the door open so Kelsey could slip inside. "I'm sure things will work out. When I was researching the campus at home, it said that the average snowfall for the winter is only one or two meters. Which is less than fifteen centimeters per day for the winter."

Kelsey set the food down on an empty desk and stared at Chinatsu in disbelief for a moment before letting out a sharp laugh, bending down to pull her boots off. She immediately stepped into her slippers so she wouldn't step in the small puddles of melting snow and get her socks all cold and wet. "That's a pretty funny joke, Chinatsu-chan. You're...you're really channeling Spock there, huh?"

Chinatsu gave Kelsey a confused look as she opened up the pizza box, picking up one floppy slice with a napkin. "What are you talking about? That  _ is _ the average snowfall for this area according to the data available online."

Kelsey just kept laughing as she pulled out a couple plastic cups and poured soda into both of them, handing one over to Chinatsu. "Christ on the cross, you're serious. It...snow doesn't work like that, Chinatsu-chan." Kelsey couldn't help chuckling to herself still as she pulled out a slice of pizza for herself. "It's...more like rain. Sure, in a whole year, a place might get fifty two inches of rain, but that doesn't mean it rains non-stop, one inch a day. Sometimes it doesn't snow at all and sometimes you get like two feet of snow in a couple days." 

Chinatsu sat on the bed, scooting back to lean against the wall, pulling her knees up to act as a makeshift table. "And you think that tomorrow is one of the days when there will be a lot of snow?"

"I think  _ today _ is a day there will be a lot of snow. And I think tomorrow is probably gonna be even more. I wouldn't be surprised if there was two feet on the ground before the grounds keepers or whatever come back on Sunday to plow before school starts." Kelsey sat down next to Chinatsu on the bed and scooted back to join her, their hips just touching as they both tore into their pizza slices.

After a few minutes, Chinatsu leaned against Kelsey's shoulder with a sigh. "So you really do not think we can go on a date tomorrow?"

Kelsey turned to place a gentle kiss against the top of Chinatsu's head. "I don't think we'll be able to leave campus. But that doesn't mean we have to give up on a date. We can just find...other things to do for our date."

"But what about the chicken for dinner?"

Kelsey just laughed and draped her arm around Chinatsu's shoulder. "Don't worry so much about the food. Sure, for some people, having the perfect Thanksgiving meal is the most important thing but like...just think about the name of the holiday. It's Thanksgiving. It's the day you give thanks for all the good things in your life. Like family and having food so you're not starving. And having the cutest girlfriend on campus." Kelsey squeezed Chinatsu tight against her side, her stomach doing flips as she wondered how Chinatsu would react to being called her girlfriend.

Chinatsu sat there silently for several long seconds, but at least she hadn't tensed up or tried to pull away from Kelsey. Finally, she nodded, her hair tickling Kelsey's neck. "I think I understand, now. It will still be a good Thanksgiving because we are together and warm and safe, yes?"

"Exactly," Kelsey said, letting out the breath she had been holding as Chinatsu spoke. "So it doesn't matter if I'm stuck inside with you, studying and watching Netflix. It'll still be a good date because we're together doing something special as a couple."

Chinatsu simply nodded again before pulling away from Kelsey to climb off the bed. "And that is why you brought back so much food?"

"Yeah, basically. If we ended up stuck on campus with the student center closed, I wanted to make sure we had enough food to get through until the plows come through." She turned to see Chinatsu at the foot of the bed, grabbing another slice of pizza.

Kelsey leaned down toward the foot of the bed and offered up her napkin. "Can I have another one while you're up? Pretty please?"

Chinatsu looked down at Kelsey and laughed gently, setting a slice of pizza on the napkin before closing the box to join Kelsey on the bed again.

*   *   *

Kelsey woke up the next morning to the heavenly feeling of Chinatsu in her arms. She tugged the other woman closer so that they were almost skin to skin, if not for the sleep clothes they both wore. Kelsey suddenly wished more than ever that they could share a dorm room so that they could sleep together in the nude if they wanted. There would be no one else to judge them for sharing a bed or sleeping topless. They wouldn't have to leave socks on the door or make arrangements to be left alone for a quick fuck. It would just be the two of them alone in a room. They could even go topless when the weather outside grew too warm near the beginning and end of the school year.

Chinatsu shifted in Kelsey's arms and pulled about an inch away so she could stretch out in bed. Kelsey slipped her hand over Chinatsu's hip before trailing it along her back to rest on the mattress between them. "Morning, beautiful," Kelsey said in a rough, quiet voice. "If you want, I can go check on the snow while you get dressed and everything..."

Chinatsu relaxed from her long stretch and rolled to a sitting position on the edge of the bed. "Okay. The room keys are on the dresser. As long as you're back to let me in after my shower."

Kelsey sat up in bed and reached out to rub her hand up and down Chinatsu's back a couple times. "Yeah, I should be back before then. I can't even get back into the dorm if I leave it. I'm just gonna go peek out the front door."

Chinatsu nodded and stood up to rummage in her suitcase for a change of clothes before grabbing her towel and leaving the dorm room for the communal showers. Kelsey scooted to the edge of the bed and stuck her feet into her slippers before going to check on the front door. Just as she thought, there was almost a foot of snow piled up against the door, even with the overhang, and the drifts farther out looked to be just over a foot but fat, fluffy flakes of snow were still falling in the early morning light.

The sun was nowhere to be seen because of the clouds covering the sky, but the light still managed to filter down through the clouds, reflecting back off the snow so that it looked almost as bright as a normal fall day. Maybe if the weather stayed relatively nice with the sunlight bouncing down through the clouds and drifts of light, fluffy snow, they could spend some time outside, playing in the snow like kids.

Kelsey smiled to herself, holding the keys tighter as she headed back to the dorm room. There was certainly something appealing about being out in the snow with Chinatsu, throwing snowballs or building snowmen until their cheeks and noses were red with cold. Then coming back inside where it was warmer and making up mugs of hot cocoa or, more likely, hot tea with a bit of sugar. Then they could curl up on the bed with reheated pizza and watch movies until it got too late. Then they could kiss and Kelsey could drift off to sleep with Chinatsu in her arms again. Overall, it sounded like a great Thanksgiving. She missed seeing her family, of course, but given the way they squabbled anytime they were within a mile of each other, it was nice to spend the holiday away from them, too. She could see them for Christmas dinner, after all, and that was guaranteed to be just as hectic as Thanksgiving, if not more so.

Kelsey pulled out her clothes from yesterday and changed into them. She figured the outer layers were still reasonably clean because she had only worn them for a few hours after her pizza run before changing back into her pajamas. She made sure she had her bra on under her sweater this time, though. She didn't even want to *imagine* being out in the snow without at least one other layer between her skin and her cold, wet sweater. She shivered and pulled on a long sleeved shirt as well as her bra before she topped it all off with a sweater.

She heard the gentle knock on the door and opened it, smiling warmly at Chinatsu, already dressed up to go outside. She just needed to throw on her boots and a jacket. Chinatsu slipped gracefully through the door to sit on the edge of the bed. She draped her wet towel over one of the rungs at the foot of the bed to air dry and looked Kelsey over from head to toe. "You aren't going to shower?"

"Not quite yet. I was just thinking, Chinatsu-chan...." Kelsey couldn't quite keep the grin off her face as she shifted eagerly from foot to foot."

"About what?" Chinatsu raised one of her eyebrows at Kelsey, giving her a curious look.

"Well, there's a lot of snow out there and it looks like good, fluffy snow. Not to heavy or wet..." She paused for a moment to look at Chinatsu, who was simply waiting on the edge of the bed, her wet hair plastered against her skull and neck, the tips only barely starting to stick out where they had begun to dry. "Well, I was thinking maybe we could go play in the snow for a little while and then I could come back, take a nice hot shower, and we could watch movies for the rest of the day."

Chinatsu shook her head slightly, but she wore a smile. Did she not like being out in the snow? Did she think Kelsey was childish for wanting to be out in it? Chinatsu finally looked back at Kelsey with a smile and stood up to stand in front of her, toe to toe. "I think that sounds like a good idea..." Kelsey felt like her soul was trying to float away out of her body from sheer happiness. "...but it's still a bit early, isn't it? We can't just...spend all day watching movies. Come and study for a few hours and *then* we can go play in the snow like children."

Kelsey sighed but went to pull out her textbooks, dropping her sweater by her backpack so she wouldn't overheat in the small room. "Yeah, I guess you have a point, but I wouldn't mind a good solid ten hours of Netflix and chill with you..." Kelsey plopped down on the bed with her books, taking the head half of the bed to spread out while Chinatsu settled into the foot half to study.

'What do you mean by Netflix and chill?" Chinatsu opened up her textbook before looking back up at Kelsey.

Kelsey opened her mouth to explain, then realized what she had just said to Chinatsu and blushed, suddenly feeling feverish from the flow of blood to her face. "Uh, n-nothing. It's just, you know, hanging out and watching some movies. That's it."

"I see. Well, perhaps we can study until lunch time and then take a break to burn off some excess energy before we ah....do some Netflix and chill." Chinatsu turned her attention back to her books, reading them intently as Kelsey tried to calm her racing heart and focus on her schoolwork again.

*   *   *

When Kelsey finally shut her textbook and climbed off the bed, she saw that it was already half past noon. She rummaged through the food bags as her stomach reminded her, loudly and frequently, that she hadn't eaten anything since last night. She finally settled on some chips and pulled the bag of chips out, pouring herself another cup of soda. "Do you want anything to eat, Chinatsu-chan?"

Chinatsu glanced up from her textbook and shook her head. "No, thank you, Kelsey-chan. I'm trying to watch my figure after my....procedure." 

Kelsey came back to the bed and sat down next to her pile of textbooks, spotting the hint of pink in Chinatsu's cheeks. "Why are you so embarrassed? Everyone has medical history. I'm sure yours is  _ way _ tamer than my cousins' histories."

Chinatsu shook her head a little and finally closed her book, setting it to one side. "I'm not embarrassed by the...procedure, but I know it will make me undesirable to many people."

Kelsey snorted and ripped open the top of the chip bag, starting to chew on a few of them. "Anyone who says you're undesirable is either lying or an idiot. You're the cutest girl I've ever met and I've met a lot. Most of the people back home are either girls or women and they all end up fighting over the few guys that are there."

Chinatsu shook her head, but she was smiling again as she did so. "Thank you for the compliment, Kelsey-chan. I appreciate it." More than the smile though, Kelsey saw Chinatsu's hand snake out to snatch a couple chips from the bag, eating them slowly as if savoring them.

"I mean, I get that it was a compliment, but I really meant it. I don't care if you gain a few pounds or if you're not skinny as a twig. I'll still think you're cute. Your  _ personality _ is cute and you've got a great sense of style. And, lets be honest, your hips are pretty rockin', too.. I always thought Japanese people were like...straight up and down. With tiny hips." Kelsey grinned impishly over at Chinatsu before biting into another small stack of chips with a loud  _ crunch _ .

"...I used to look like that before. But you...really like the way I am now?" Chinatsu turned to give Kelsey a shy smile, as if she still didn't trust the words coming out of Kelsey's mouth.

"Yeah. I really do. More hips just means I can get a better grip when we....uh..." Kelsey coughed, cleared her throat, and coughed again. "Sorry, uh....when we...cuddle. I like having something big enough to hold onto."

"I see..." Chinatsu got a thoughtful look on her face for a moment before she took a few more chips from the bag. "Once you're done eating, would you still like to go outside? It has been a long time since I played in the snow. It snowed back at home, but there was so little room for us to play in it and I've been busy with school since I was a child so I only got to play with snow in...elementary school? When I first started."

"Yeah, that's elementary school over here. And of  _ course _ I still want to go out in the snow! It'll be  _ fun _ to just...make snowmen or have a snowball fight or make snow angels!" Kelsey shoved a few more chips into her mouth, trying to fill up her stomach before she went out and burned off all the calories she just ate and then some. She was sure that counted double for Chinatsu considering how little she had eaten since dinner the night before.

Kelsey and Chinatsu picked at the bag of chips for another fifteen or twenty minutes before they both decided they'd had enough and closed the bag back up. It had also been just enough time to watch the newest episode of the TV show they had both been watching separately. Kelsey climbed off the bed and stuck the chips back on the desk with the leftover pizza before pulling her sweater back on and starting on her boots.

"So what do you want to do first? We should have a whole campus full of snow to play with so we definitely won't run out."

Chinatsu closed her laptop and stowed it in her backpack before reaching for her own boots, far more stylish and probably more prone to slipping than Kelsey's ugly pair of men's work boots. "I think first I will make a....ah...a snow bunny. It is like a snowman, but...smaller and easier for children to make. Then perhaps a yuki daruma." Chinatsu pulled her fleece jacket out of her suitcase and put it on, zipping it up to her chin before pulling a pair of thin, suede gloves out of the pockets. Or at least they looked like suede, but they were probably some kind of faux leather given the uproar around real leather in the last few years.

Kelsey looked Chinatsu over once more and chuckled. "Yeah. That sounds good. It's probably for the best if we don't go lobbing snowballs with the way you're dressed right now."

Chinatsu looked down at herself from her single pair of thin jeans to her layered tops, each one thin enough to be comfortable when worn three deep, to her gloves and jacket. "What is wrong with my clothes?"

"Nothing, really. They'll stand up to the snow for a little while. They're just not heavy enough to keep you warm for very long." Kelsey pulled on her waterproof jacket over her sweater and long-sleeved shirt before pulling the hood up and slipping her hands into thick fleece mittens. "And they'll get soaked through pretty quickly, too. But it is what it is. Let's go have some fun while we can. You have the keys?"

Chinatsu grabbed the keys off the dresser and shoved them into the pocket of her jeans. "I do now. Are you ready? Will you be upset that we cannot stay as long outside?"

Kelsey just shrugged and checked her phone one last time before tossing it on the bed. "Like I said, it is what it is. Sure, it'd be cool if we could stay outside longer, but I'm kind of in the same boat as you. I was usually too busy with school or helping around the house to get much time in the snow. So I'll take whatever I can get and be happy with it." Kelsey turned to grin at Chinatsu, her heart swelling when she looked at the woman who had agreed to date her. "Now, come on. This should be the perfect time of day. It's the warmest and brightest part of the day, even if it's still just... _ fucking _ cold outside."

Kelsey took Chinatsu's hand and tugged her over to the door. After a brief moment of hesitation, or maybe just surprise, Chinatsu followed easily enough. They left the dorm room and made their way to the front door. Kelsey braced her shoulder against the glass door and shoved on it to shift the mass of snow that had drifted up against it.

The door opened more easily than she thought it would, though she still encountered resistance near the end from the sheer bulk of the snow pile. The wind was still blowing outside, though not as strongly as it was the night before. It still blew little shifting snow dunes across the floor of the lobby once the door was open. Kelsey waded out into the snow and turned back to hold the door for Chinatsu, offering her a hand.

Chinatsu used Kelsey's hand to steady herself as she waded out into the snow as well. Kelsey let the door swing shut behind them and let out a joyous  _ whoop _ before wrapping her arms around Chinatsu to give her a firm kiss on the lips, still keeping it chaste and keeping her tongue locked behind her lips. She didn't want to move too quickly and frighten Chinatsu away with her desperation, after all.

She broke the kiss after just a second or two and pulled away to take off through snow drifts that were up to her knees in places. "Look at all this snow! It's  _ great _ !"

Chinatsu smiled gently and picked her way out into the snow, taking care not to slip or fall over. Kelsey watched her like a hawk, ready to swoop in and steady her, but luckily Chinatsu seemed to realize quickly that a good looking pair of boots isn't necessarily the best pair to go out in the snow with. Kelsey finally relaxed when Chinatsu dropped to her knees in the snow, starting to gather the white fluff with her hands and shape it into a mound. Kelsey walked about a hundred feet away before bending to start compressing her own ball of snow.

She got her snow into a lump about eight inches across before she dug her mittens under the solid mass, lifted, and started rolling it along the ground, packing more snow onto it as she went. By the time she got back to Chinatsu, the base of Kelsey's snow man was almost two feet in diameter and she rolled it to a rest by Chinatsu's family of snow rabbits, little half round mounds with ears laying along their backs as long, narrow lumps of snow. They each had two indents on the sides of their head and a small snowball for a tail.

Kelsey dropped into a crouch, reaching out to smooth her mitten along the surface of the largest rabbit. "These are really cute, Chinatsu-chan... I just figured most people who played in snow made like...snowmen. Or huge sculptures if they're really serious about it."

Chinatsu shrugged and shuffled around in place to grab more snow from the quickly depleting bank behind her, forming it into a ball before setting it with the rest to shape it into a baby rabbit, poking eye holes with her pinky finger. Kelsey chuckled and leaned over to give Chinatsu a kiss on her red cheek before standing up to go work on the second layer of her snowman.

*   *   *

After an hour and a half, Kelsey was starting to shiver under all her layers. She never saw Chinatsu shivering, but she was sure the other girl must have been frozen through considering that Chinatsu's winter clothes were even flimsier than her own. She stood next to Chinatsu and her army of rabbits with the small snowman standing guard over them and offered Chinatsu her hand. "You ready to head inside? I'm freezing. We've been out here a while."

Chinatsu took Kelsey's hand and nodded before she stood up. "That sounds wise. I would rather not get frostbite today." She bent over to brush the caked on snow from her jeans, revealing the wet spots underneath. Kelsey took Chinatsu's hand again and headed for the door of the building. Even with the snow they had pushed out of the way earlier, there were still two or three inches piled up against the door from the fresh snowfall and the wind blowing drifts where they didn't belong.

She waited while Chinatsu swiped her card through the reader and tugged on the door as soon as the lock disengaged, holding it open for Chinatsu. Once her girlfriend was safely indoors, Kelsey followed pulling the door tight behind her. She stomped the snow off her boots again, marching in a small circle off to the side of the door so she wouldn't leave huge puddles of melting snow in the walking path. When Chinatsu grabbed her hand, she followed with a blissful smile.

They got inside the room and Kelsey immediately turned and started peeling off her cold, wet clothes. "I think I'm gonna go take my shower now. Get nice and warm and put on my softest jammies. Want to come with me and get another shower?" She turned to grin at Chinatsu, down to just her long sleeved shirt and jeans, her slippers on her bare feet. "Nothing warms you up quite like a hot shower. Except maybe a hot bath. But we don't have one of those here."

Chinatsu went still for a moment, Kelsey couldn't even hear the huff of her breath, but finally stepped over to her suitcase, pulling out a pair of flannel pajamas and her still damp towel off the foot of the bed. "I do wish we had a nice, warm bath here, but I suppose a hot shower is the closest we can get..." 

Kelsey smiled and grabbed her own towel from the head of the bed before snatching up her shampoo bottle and washcloth. Chinatsu picked up the keys and they walked out the door together, heading for the showers.

*   *   *

After their shower, Kelsey settled down on the bed next to Chinatsu with reheated pizza on a plate and cups of soda on top of the dresser next to them. They both sat up in bed with their backs against the headboard and Chinatsu's computer balanced between their legs, the screen casting a glow on them in the quickly falling night. Kelsey wrapped her arm around Chinatsu's shoulder and pressed a kiss to her cheek as Chinatsu browsed through the movies available on Netflix.

Chinatsu finally settled on a movie and Kelsey handed over one of the drinks, leaning against Chinatsu's side. "I know it probably wasn't the date you were hoping for, Chinatsu-chan, but I had fun today." Kelsey shifted on the bed to subtly stretch a kink out of her back before relaxing against the pillows again.

"I had fun as well," Chinatsu said softly, resting her cheek against Kelsey's shoulder, eyes glued to the computer screen. Kelsey smiled and took a bite of her pizza before it got cold again, chewing and swallowing it as she rested her hand on Chinatsu's shoulder, rubbing slowly through her pajamas. They finished their food quickly and both took a bathroom break, but were soon back in bed with the blanket pulled up under their chins and the lights off as they watched movies in bed, huddled up together for warmth and comfort.

Kelsey covered a yawn with her free hand and turned to look down at Chinatsu, still resting against her shoulder. "I think it might be time for bed, Chinatsu-chan. I'm pretty tired out after being outside. I just....I just wanna curl up together and sleep right now."

Chinatsu reached out slowly to pause the movie before shutting the computer and handing it to Kelsey. "Can you set that on the dresser?"

"Yeah, sure." Kelsey lifted the laptop, careful not to catch the charge cord on anything as she shifted it over to sit on top of the dresser. She felt Chinatsu slide down away from her shoulder and looked back to find her girlfriend already laid out on her side, tugging a pillow down under her cheek. Kelsey chuckled and sat up straight to shove her pillow down before sliding down to join Chinatsu in bed. She rolled up on her side to face Chinatsu, looking at the curve of her cheeks highlighted by the automatic street lamps outside, lining all the walking and driving paths on the campus.

Kelsey leaned over in bed to give Chinatsu a quick kiss on the cheek, but found herself meeting lips instead. She laughed to herself and pulled back to smile at Chinatsu. "Goodnight, Chinatsu-chan..." she whispered before settling back down against her pillow. She felt a slim hand land on her hip and slide up under her pajama top, resting against her waist and radiating warmth into her body. Before she could ask what was going on, Kelsey saw Chinatsu's shadow looming over her, leaning down to give her another insistent kiss.

Decidedly impure thoughts flashed through Kelsey's mind and suddenly her clit got super sensitive, registering every movement her thighs made as they slid against one another. Her face felt like it would burn up when Chinatsu pulled away from the kiss to look down at her, her eyelids heavy and her breathing heavier. Kelsey swallowed hard and cleared her throat. "...Chinatsu-chan...?"

Chinatsu pressed Kelsey onto her back and crawled up to straddle Kelsey's thighs, still wearing her pajamas. "I can't wait any longer, Kelsey-chan. Please, you are driving me crazy."

Kelsey felt her breath catch in her throat as she looked up at Chinatsu kneeling over her, dumbstruck for several seconds before she grinned and her body did the talking for her. She cupped Chinatsu's face in one hand and drew her down for a hard, open mouthed kiss, her other hand sliding up Chinatsu's back, under her shirt, smoothing her palm over the large expanse of warm, smooth skin. Chinatsu's muscles moved easily under her hand as she leaned down closer to Kelsey so that their chests almost touched.

Kelsey moaned into Chinatsu's mouth and finally moved her palm down and around Chinatsu's side to smooth over her stomach before reaching up to cup one small breast in her palm, flicking her thumb against the stiff nub of the nipple. Chinatsu broke the kiss with a gasp and arched her back to create some free space, dragging Kelsey's shirt up so her own stomach lay bare to the cool air.

Kelsey felt her nipples go tight, almost painfully so, between the air sneaking between them and her arousal. Then Chinatsu grabbed a handful of breast and  _ squeezed _ , the outer edges spilling out of her grasp. Her clever fingers worked at Kelsey's tit, rubbing, massaging, and squeezing, working Kelsey to a higher level of arousal without even fully touching her nipples. And when Chinatsu finally  _ did _ start in on a nipple—pinching, rolling, flicking, grinding—Kelsey had to muffle a cry with her fist in her mouth.

Kelsey could feel every beat of her heart thrumming through her pussy. She hadn't reached down to touch herself, but past experience suggested that she and her panties would be soaking wet. She was certain it would only take a few minutes, at the most, to bring herself to orgasm at the end of this make out session.

When Kelsey managed to regain some control of her voice, she pulled her hand away from her face and reached up for Chinatsu's pajama top, unbuttoning the shirt by feel so Chinatsu's chest lay bare above her. She cupped both hands over Chinatsu's breasts and teased her nipples slowly, letting out a shaky breath. "God you're so cute, Chinatsu-chan..." she whispered, stretching her neck up to give Chinatsu a quick kiss. "I wish we could do this every day..."

Chinatsu leaned in to deepen their kiss and gave Kelsey's nipples a hard tweak. Kelsey tried to bite back another moan, her hands twitching on Chinatsu's breasts as she fought the urge to reach down into her pants to get off right then. Chinatsu ran her hand down from Kelsey's deliciously abused breasts to slide over her stomach, fingertips barely dipping past the elastic waist on Kelsey's pants.

Kelsey went stiff, struggling to draw breath at the mere thought of how close Chinatsu was to her crotch. "Chinatsu-chan," she said quietly, struggling to keep from surging up against Chinatsu's hand. "Are...are you sure you want to...?"

Chinatsu leaned down and pressed her lips to the side of Kelsey's neck, slipping her fingers further into Kelsey's pants. Kelsey bucked her hips up against Chinatsu's hand and released her hold on Chinatsu's tits. As long as Chinatsu was willing to rub her clit, Kelsey hoped that Chinatsu wouldn't mind a bit of reciprocation. She slipped her hand into Chinatsu's pajama pants and cupped the crotch of her cotton panties, grinding the heel of her hand against the wet spot on them.

Chinatsu's rhythm faltered for a few seconds as her body sagged down against Kelsey, her position trapping both their hands awkwardly between them, but Kelsey refused to stop. Just because her hand was stuck, it didn't mean her fingers stopped working. She tugged the crotch of Chinatsu's panties to one side, slipping her finger between the slick lips the rub circles around Chinatsu's stiff clit.

Chinatsu whined in the dark room, her head lolling against Kelsey's shoulder, but she got her hand working again, sliding it into the top of Kelsey's panties to rub her clit slowly, teasingly. Though given how close Kelsey was to going over the edge, she didn't mind Chinatsu taking things a bit slower with her. As it was, a shock of pleasure rolled down through her pussy each time her nipples caught a fold in the fabric of their shirts, hastily pushed out of the way as they were.

Kelsey reluctantly pulled her hand away from Chinatsu's crotch, licking her fingers clean and grabbing a fistful of ass with each hand. "What...?" Chinatsu's fingers stilled in obvious confusion and Kelsey used her hold on Chinatsu's ass to drag her up a few inches. Chinatsu's fingers pulled away from Kelsey's pussy when she was forcibly shifted up, but she shoved the hand further between her legs to continue teasing Kelsey.

Kelsey grabbed the edges of Chinatsu's shirt and shoved the sleeves as far down her arms as it would go, baring her delicious breasts in full, not even the drape of fabric to protect them. Kelsey pulled Chinatsu back down to lay on top of her, latching onto one of Chinatsu's nipples and suckling. Chinatsu finally lost control and cried out, pressing her fingers harder against Kelsey, sending Kelsey ever closer to the edge. Kelsey quickly pushed Chinatsu's pants down with both hands, tugged her panties to one side with one hand, and eagerly dived back in with her second hand, flicking and grinding against Chinatsu's clit in turn.

Chinatsu's voice kept climbing in pitch as her juices coated Kelsey's fingers and soaking into the fabric of their pajamas. Kelsey swapped nipples, leaving one to hang in the chill night air, soaking wet, as she covered the other with a wet heat. If her mouth was anything like the rest of her body, it was burning feverishly hot, providing an even stronger contrast to the cold, neglected nipple.

Kelsey scraped the edges of her teeth along the tight nub of Chinatsu's nipple, making Chinatsu cry out over and over again. She may have been trying to call out Kelsey's name, but if so, it had been garbled by pleasure into something unrecognizable. Finally, Chinatsu stiffened under Kelsey's assault, shivering as her release hit. She created a damp spot that soaked through two layers of cloth to leave a faint wet mark on Kelsey's skin itself. Kelsey slowly rubbed circles around Chinatsu's clit until she stopped shaking with aftershocks and licked her fingers clean again, savoring the taste.

Kelsey smiled to herself as she released Chinatsu's panties and pulled her pajama pants back up to her waist. Her own clit still throbbed against Chinatsu's fingers but she wrapped an arm around her girlfriend, content to fall asleep knowing she had made Chinatsu come. Before she could nod off though, Kelsey felt Chinatsu's fingers twitch back to life. 

She let out a surprised moan and rolled her hips up into the touch. Fabric caught on her nipples and brushed roughly over her skin as Chinatsu shimmied her way back down Kelsey's body, fingers never leaving her clit as she moved this time. Kelsey let out a whimper each time her nipples snagged on Chinatsu's pajamas, her hips lifting off the bed. Chinatsu finally found whatever position she had been looking for and she started working Kelsey's clit again like a woman on a mission.

Kelsey stuffed the edge of her fist back in her mouth to stifle her cries, just in case there was someone in the next room over who might complain to them, or worse, tattle on them to the school administration. If Chinatsu was supposed to be alone in this room, Kelsey didn't think the higher ups would look kindly on Kelsey's presence in the room. She bit down on the meat of her hand while Chinatsu worked her clit quickly, no longer holding back to make the pleasure last or in an attempt to synchronize their orgasms. Chinatsu had already come and she seemed to be trying to push Kelsey over the edge as quickly as possible.

Kelsey braced her heels against the bed to grind up against Chinatsu's hand, chest heaving as her shirt bunched up under her armpits. She thrust her hips up and up again, her hips suspended off the sheets for a few seconds at a time before her shaking legs gave out and she crashed back to the mattress, gasping for air through her nose. Her whole body quaked, tensing up as she could feel her orgasm building and building. She wanted to feel that release but she couldn't quite get there. Had she used her vibrator too much? Could she no longer get off when a cute girl fingered her pussy?

Kelsey fought to take a deep breath, forcing her moans back down as she looked at Chinatsu in the reflected street lamps, having a hard time focusing in the dark. "Please," she spoke in a strangled voice, barely louder than a whisper. "Please....I need something... _ in _ me. Fingers or....or  _ something _ ...!"

Chinatsu nodded and grunted her assent before pulling her hand out of Kelsey's pants and sitting up to straddle Kelsey's thighs, dragging her pants and panties both down around her thighs to expose the throbbing head masquerading as a pussy to the air. Kelsey shivered when the cold air hit it, but had to shove her fist against her mouth again when she felt two slim fingers slide inside her vagina, already wet with her juices, and Chinatsu used her free hand to work Kelsey's clit.

Kelsey was soon back to full arousal, fighting to thrust against Chinatsu's hands as her orgasm built behind the dam. Then Chinatsu curled her fingers inside Kesley, rubbing against her g-spot and the shock sent Kelsey over the edge. Her whole body went tight and she let out a muffled scream against her fist as she flooded Chinatsu's fingers with pussy juice. She collapsed onto the bed and dropped her abused hand to her side. She barely even noticed when Chinatsu tugged her pajama pants back into place, but as soon as Chinatsu laid down next to her, Kelsey pulled Chinatsu close for a gentle kiss.

"Christ above that was amazing... I didn't think you'd even *want* to do that, but that just shows what I know...." 

Chinatsu returned Kelsey's kiss and pulled the blankets over both of them, not even bothering to button her top back up. "I have wanted to do that for...a long time, but I have never done such things with another girl. I hope I was sufficient."

"Sufficient? You were fucking  _ amazing _ ! I don't even get off like that on my own! I just want to know when we can do that again...!"

Chinatsu tucked her head against Kelsey's chest, hiding her face from sight, out of embarrassment if the heat of her cheeks was any indication. "Perhaps...tomorrow. If we get enough studying done..." she said finally, tugging Kelsey's shirt down to where it belonged.

Kelsey squeezed Chinatsu tight to her chest for a brief moment before relaxing and pressing a kiss to the top of Chinatsu's head. "Goodnight, Chinatsu-chan."

"Goodnight, Kelsey-chan."

*   *   *

Kelsey woke up the next morning with a face full of tit and she smiled to herself as memories of last night came back to her. She pressed a gentle kiss to the hollow between Chinatsu's breasts before stretching out the kinks in her back and snuggling up to her girlfriend, giving her a gentle kiss on the lips. Chinatsu opened her eyes slowly and smiled back at Kelsey, stretching forward to press her lips to the tip of Kelsey's nose.

"Good morning," Chinatsu said, her voice still soft with sleep and her body warm and pliant. Kelsey found herself wanting nothing more than to roll Chinatsu onto her back, crawl between her legs, and suck her dry, but she was sure that Chinatsu would insist on them studying for several hours first.

Kelsey reluctantly pulled away from Chinatsu and started buttoning up Chinatsu's soft pink pajama shirt. "Morning, Chinatsu-chan. Last night was...kind of a surprise. Not in a bad way, mind you, but I didn't know you'd been thinking about me like that."

Chinatsu blushed and tipped her head down so her face was pressed into the pillow. "I apologize for losing control, Kelsey-chan... I didn't mean to....assault you."

Kelsey laughed softly and brushed Chinatsu's hair back, tucking it behind her ear "You weren't assaulting me. I promise. I just didn't think  _ you _ felt that way about  _ me _ ." Kelsey leaned forward to press a kiss to Chinatsu's temple. "Want to go wash off and...I dunno...maybe we could talk a little bit? Or maybe we can do some studying if you want. My head isn't quite as...stuffed full as it was the other day."

Chinatsu squirmed a little in bed and sat up with a stretch. "A shower sounds like a good idea considering....well. And we  _ should _ study, but if you want to....be girlfriends...it wouldn't hurt to get to know each other better..."

Kelsey smiled and sat up as well, the blanket pooling in her lap. "How about we shower, talk, study, and then maybe you'd like to...try some new experiments?" Kelsey raised her eyebrow playfully at Chinatsu, running her tongue along her lips.

Chinatsu looked down at her lap, her cheeks bright pink. "....what do you mean by experiments?"

Kelsey put her fingers under Chinatsu's chin and lifted it to kiss her. "Nothing too extreme. I don't even have my vibrator with me. But I was thinking that maybe I could...use my mouth on you? But someday I want you to fuck me. I'll even buy you a harness and a dildo for it if you want." Chinatsu's cheeks grew redder and redder as Kelsey kept talking. Kelsey released her chin and Chinatsu looked back down at her lap, her hands holding tight to fistfuls of fabric. "But we don't have to if you're not comfortable with it. Whatever you wanna do, Chinatsu-chan."

Chinatsu took a deep breath, still looking down at her knees. "...let's just...do everything else and....we can decide once we've finished studying..."

Kelsey gave her a lopsided grin and ran her fingers through Chinatsu's satiny soft hair. "That sounds good. I know it was pretty weird my first time, too. Good, but still pretty weird."

Chinatsu nodded and climbed off the bed, still not meeting Kelsey's gaze, but given how embarrassed she looked, Kelsey wasn't surprised. Kelsey climbed out of bed as well, putting on her slippers to grab her towel and a clean set of clothes. "Do you want to be in there together? Or do you need some time alone?"

Chinatsu stood still for a moment before finally turning to look at Kelsey of her own volition. "...I'd like some time alone if you do not mind..."

Kelsey nodded and sat down on the edge of the bed, towel and shampoo in hand. "Yeah, no problem. I'll just wait here for you to get back and take my turn."

Chinatsu smiled and turned to leave the room, her towel draped over one arm and her shower caddy in hand.

*   *   *

After they had both showered, Kelsey settled onto the bed next to Chinatsu, with cups of ramen in their hands as they waited for it to cook. Kelsey turned to look at Chinatsu, both hands wrapped around the foam cup to absorb the heat. "If it's okay for me to go first, I had a question about something you said yesterday..."

Chinatsu nodded her assent, setting her cup on the bed, gripped gently between her knees. "Please, go ahead, Kelsey-chan..."

Kelsey nodded and took a moment to compose her thoughts. "So yesterday, you said you were shy about your hips because they used to be skinnier. Before your procedure, you said."

"...I did say that, yes." Chinatsu looked down at her knees, her cheeks going pink again.

"I was just wondering what kind of procedure would do that? I mean, I'm not about to dump you for being sick, but if there something serious wrong with you? I mean, I know it's not that you're a trans girl because, well, you got all the right equipment down there as far as I can tell..." Kelsey finally trailed off with a small cough. "Sorry. It's not much of a question if I never let you answer, huh?"

Chinatsu peeled back the paper on top of her ramen to poke at the noodles inside with her chopsticks. Kelsey let her be, waiting patiently for an answer. Ever since she had met Chinatsu, she'd never known Chinatsu to let a question go unanswered, though sometimes she took a few minutes to come up with an answer. Finally Chinatsu laid the paper over her ramen cup again and laid her chopsticks very precisely across the top.

"I do not have any diseases," she said, speaking quietly at first. "My procedure was not to correct some problem with my body. I... It was part of my job at the time. To earn money for university, I was...an egg donor. And also a surrogate mother. Yamada-sensei was not...interested in women. But it was his duty as the oldest son to continue the family line." Chinatsu took another deep breath, never once meeting Kelsey's eyes as she spoke in an even and measured voice. "Yamada-sensei's father paid for the procedure and the doctors took my eggs, fertilized them, and only impregnated me when they had one they were certain would be a son. I lived with Yamada-sensei and his...partner while I was pregnant. I was studying for my entrance exams and I worked part time at a bookstore to earn more money until it became too difficult to work."

Kelsey frowned a little, reaching over to hold one of Chinatsu's hands. "You keep calling him sensei. Was he your teacher or something...?"

Chinatsu finally looked up to meet Kelsey's worried gaze with one of her bright, sparkling smiles. "Oh...no, nothing like that. He is...an artist. A very good artist. He is...a master at what he does, so I call him Yamada-sensei. Please, do not worry. There was nothing abusive about what happened. My mother was not terribly happy that I carried a child for a strange man, but the fees from the agency means that I was able to afford to come here for at least one full year. I am hoping that, in that time, I can apply for scholarships to help with the rest of my schooling." Chinatsu squeezed Kelsey's hand back with a gentle smile. "But my hips are so wide because...I carried an infant between them. A rather large one. But he still came out the usual way. I stayed with Yamada-sensei until I came here, helping to care for Daichi-kun. Yamada-sensei still sends me emails to tell me how Daichi-kun is doing without me."

"Wow. So like...when did you give birth to this baby?" Kelsey found herself rubbing circles on the back of Chinatsu's hand with her thumb..

Chinatsu sucked her lip into her mouth as she thought for a moment. "He was born early in May. Before I came here. I nursed him for as long as possible but we had to wean him off mother's milk so that I could come to school." Chinatsu's cheeks went red and she laughed nervously, peeling back the cover of her ramen again. "I had to wear pads inside my bra when I first came here, because I was still lactating slightly."

Kelsey just found herself staring slack jawed at Chinatsu. She didn't think she could ever force herself to carry some man's baby, just to avoid student loans. She'd rather let a man fuck her than have to carry his spawn around for nine months. "...that's amazing, Chinatsu-chan. I'm not sure I could have done what you did. And to still be ready for school like...four months later? You're  _ amazing _ !"

Chinatsu blushed and picked up her chopsticks in one hand, lifting the ramen cup in her free hand. "It was nothing... I was apprehensive at first, but once I met Yamada-sensei at one of his book signings, I felt much better about it. He is...very shy and kind of cute. Not...not in a sexual way, though," Chinatsu stammered, as if to assure Kelsey that she wasn't in love with some gay guy back home.

Kelsey laughed and picked up her plastic fork from the dresser, peeling back the lid of her ramen to stir it up and separate the noodles. "It's okay, Chinatsu-chan. I think I get what you mean. Like how you look really cute when you're embarrassed about something, right?"

Chinatsu nodded slowly, lifting a small clump of noodles to blow on them. "I suppose so, but...he's even more shy than I am. And he is also very naive. When I lived there, his partner and I did most of the errands that required leaving the house. Yamada-sensei almost never leaves the house. And when he is working, he shuts himself in either his work room or the Japanese-style room to work. He always works at low tables. And when he is upset, he wraps himself in a large comforter to hide from the world."

Kelsey put the back of her hand over her mouth as she snorted out an indelicate laugh. "S-sorry... But I can see where that might be cute. And it might get annoying after a while, too. I can't wait to meet him and his partner and his baby."

"Oh, yes, it was sometimes annoying as well. He was still learning how to take care of himself, but I am sure that with Tachibana-san by his side, Yamada-sensei will be able to handle Daichi-kun. By the time I left, it was more difficult to get Yamada-sensei to leave Daichi-kun alone so he could work. He insisted on napping when Daichu-kun napped, eating when Daichi-kun ate, and spending all his free time holding Daichi-kun. We had to take the baby away so that he would focus on his work for a few hours instead of getting lost in Daichi-kun's schedule." Chinatsu finally shoved some of her noodles into her mouth, slurping them up with a contented smile on her face. "So now it is my turn to ask about you?"

Kelsey nodded, shoving a forkful of noodles into her mouth and swallowing them quicker than was wise. "Yeah. What do you want to know?"

Chinatsu stared thoughtfully at her noodles for a few seconds. "...why does your Japanese teacher call you Carmen-san?"

Kelsey just groaned and shook her head with a rueful smile. "Of course you overheard that..." She laughed a couple times before sighing. "Technically, Carmen is my real first name. My middle name is Kelsey. But I go by Kelsey because I got tired of the Carmen Sandiego jokes."

Chinatsu frowned, blowing on another clump of noodles. "Why would your name be a joke? Carmen Santiago doesn't sound very amusing."

Kelsey laughed brightly and leaned over to kiss Chinatsu's cheek. "That's sweet of you, but the joke isn't Carmen Santiago. It's Carmen Sandiego. She was...a character on a kid's show and she's in some computer games. She's like...a villain. She steals things. And I even kind of look like some of the pictures of her with..." Kelsey grabbed a handful of her wavy auburn hair, shaking it at Chinatsu. "Sometimes she has black hair, but sometimes they gave her  _ my _ hair..."

When she saw the blank look on Chinatsu's face, Kelsey grabbed her phone and quickly tapped on the screen with her thumb, pulling up a picture of her erstwhile namesake. Chinatsu took the phone from Kelsey to study the image on screen, turning to look back at Kelsey a few times. "You're right. She  _ does _ look like you. Was she based on you?"

Kelsey took her phone back with a shake of her head, putting it back to sleep. "I  _ wish _ ... Then I'd have some fucking  _ money _ ... They just made her look like a sexy Hispanic lady and I guess I fit that bill." She grinned playfully at Chinatsu, waggling her eyebrows suggestively. Chinatsu stared at her with a blank expression for a moment before she seemed to catch on, laughing along. 

"I feel like I am perhaps not qualified to judge such things, Kelsey-chan. After all, I am already biased in your favor... Perhaps next year you could dress as this woman for Halloween?" Chinatsu slurped up another set of noodles while Kelsey shoved another forkful into her mouth, trying to catch the stragglers without slurping. She swallowed her food and turned to look at Chinatsu with an unimpressed look.

"Not unless you wear something just as embarrassing. It's bad enough that everyone who knew me as a kid made the joke. My mom even got me the costume one year and I had to go out trick or treating and put up with all the bullies telling me they just  _ knew _ I wasn't a real person." She looked over to see Chinatsu face and the slowly dawning horror. If Kelsey had to guess, Chinatsu was blaming herself for making an insensitive remark. She probably didn't view schoolyard bullies as casually as Kelsey did. "I mean, don't worry about it. Sure, they were dicks when we were young, but they grew up. Well, most of them did at least. And when they wouldn't leave me alone, a punch in the nose and a knee to the balls usually did the trick."

"...I can see where that might be an effective deterrent... I would just be afraid of getting in trouble with the school..."

Kelsey shrugged and shoved more noodles down her gullet. "I got in plenty of trouble with the school when I was a kid. Even got suspended once or twice for sticking up for some little kid that was being picked on. But I got in trouble and the bullies got off free because they weren't being physical. I was. But  by the time I got out, I had a reputation and usually it only took one fight for the bullies to leave someone alone. Because they knew I'd keep beating their asses. I didn't care. I was smart enough to pass the tests, even if I  _ was _ out of school on suspension for a week or something. And I always passed the yearly tests, even if I missed more days than I was supposed to."

Kelsey finally paused to take a breath and chuckled at the dumbfounded expression on Chinatsu's face. "I'm not as bad here, but I don't have dickheads picking on me here. I never quite figured out whether the strangers or my distant cousins treated me worse. But I'm Hispanic. We're not afraid of a good fight. If there aren't at least three feuds going on in my family, it just means something big is brewing out of sight."

Chinatsu just shook her head slightly. "And your parents know...? About...you?"

"You mean that I'm a big old lesbo? Yeah. I think my mom's in denial, but my brother's been pretty cool about it. Sometimes the assholes at school would try to 'turn me straight' but a knee to the balls solves that problem pretty nicely, too." Kelsey gave Chinatsu a fierce grin with lots of tooth showing. "And yeah, I've fought with my mom over liking girls because she's convinced I'll never settle down and give her grandkids, but she's basically okay with it, now. Until she remembers the grandkids thing, at least."

"Well, you could always get a sperm donor when you're ready to have children. I...I assumed that is what I would end up doing. My parents do not....know about me, yet. I'm not sure it will be wise to tell them. My mother is prone to hysterics at times. If someone gives her bad news, she goes to her room, she takes some pills, and she won't speak to anyone for hours, even if she comes out to clean or cook." Chinatsu dropped her hands, resting her cup back between her knees, with just a bit of broth still in the bottom. "The only one who can calm her down once she starts crying is my father. She will often call him at work if she has a fit. He doesn't usually come home, but I cannot imagine his bosses are happy about the situation..."

"Yeah, that's probably pretty rough...." Kelsey put her cup to her lips and tilted her head back, draining the last of the broth before wrapping her arm around Chinatsu's shoulder, tugging her close. "I hope she gets the help she needs soon, because that shit doesn't sound healthy..."

"Well, she already has her pills to help her calm down...."

Kelsey kissed the top of Chinatsu's head and breathed in the smell of her shampoo. "I mean, that's a good start. But I meant like, therapy, too. If she has some kind of serious condition like panic attacks, she can work with a therapist to work on those. So she can manage them alone or make it so they don't happen as often."

Chinatsu immediately started shaking her head. "I don't think my mother will ever agree to therapy. Therapy would mean that she's admitting she's insane and she says that she is not insane."

Kelsey shook her head again. "Fucking people and not wanting to treat an  _ actual medical problem _ ... Sorry, Chinatsu-chan. I'm not mad at you just...society in general? I've lost some good friends to suicide because of bullshit thinking like that. Not the mention the number of gay guys  _ firmly _ in the closet back home because if it got out they were gay, they might get beat up by all the other guys for...looking at them weird or some bullshit."

"I do not think a man would be beaten up for being open about his homosexuality, but I also do not know anyone who is homosexual except for Yamada-sensei, his partner, and his younger brother. Yamada-san visited once or twice and he always brought a man with him. He looked like either a very expensive Host or a bodyguard... But I think Yamada-san may also be gay. Otherwise, why would there still be pressure on Yamada-sensei to produce an heir for the family?" Chinatsu shivered a little from her spot tucked under Kelsey's arm and she offered up her ramen cup silently.

Kelsey took the cup and half turned to set it on the dresser for the moment, out of the way until the next time she got up and could throw it away properly. She tugged Chinatsu up to sit on her lap and reached up to stroke Chinatsu's straight black hair, giving her a gentle kiss. "...that got kind of heavy near the end, huh? Maybe we should just...lay down and relax for a bit before we dive headfirst into the books?"

Chinatsu nodded a couple times, wrapping her arms around Kelsey to pull her close, hands resting against Kelsey's lower back. Kelsey held Chinatsu just as close when she started shimmying her way down the bed, making some room so she could lay back with Chinatsu laying on her stomach. She closed her eyes as they lay there and soon drifted off to a temporary oblivion.


End file.
